Dipper's Choice
by Marble Lion
Summary: Death stalks the multiverse in the guise of a mysterious Lizard-men army. More mature and a bit more violent, the story takes place within the infinite worlds of the multiverse and leaves the Mystery Shack behind. With time and dimensional travel our heroes face challenges and conflicts the likes they have never faced before.
1. Chapter 1: Ford's Question

Whether the shot was intentionally well aimed or simply lucky Dipper didn't care, it did the job. The Ripper's head disappeared in a flash of sizzling white light, and as the body staggered and slumped to its knees, Dipper followed it with the laser pistol. Finally when it fell into the mud and slowly oozed out its contents, Dipper allowed himself to relax and lower the weapon. His fast shallow breathing slowed and deepened, his own body slumped over and his arms dropped into the mud: 'Was it over?' Surprise, relief, and confusion began to swim through his mind and pain coursed through his body; his knees ached from the rocks he was kneeling on while his vision blurred from the heavy rain on his face.

With care and in pain he stood up, holstered the pistol and scanned the area for Ford's body; his 'grunkle' had taken a shot directly to the chest and Dipper doubted if he was still alive. The heavy rain and mist obscured the surroundings and all he saw were random shapes emerging as he walked in circles looking for the body. Then he heard it, at first the sound was barely audible above the hammering rain, but it was there in the background and getting stronger. A low moan interspersed with fits of coughing.

"Ford! Where are you?" Dipper struggled to raise his weakened voice above the din of the downpour, hoping that Ford would hear him and answer. But no answer came or at least none that he could hear. Another cough but this time louder, Dipper hurried in the direction of the sound, carelessly stumbling over rocks and slipping in the mud. Ford was alive and out there maybe even bleeding to death; he needed to get to him fast, every second counted if he wanted to save his life. Then he was on the ground, tripping over something protruding from the mud.

"Argh!?" The voice was rough and punctuated with soft gurgling sounds.

"Ford?" Dipper called out and immediately spun round on his knees. "Ford, are you...?" Only to be confronted with a pistol pointed at his head. "Don't shoot, it's me Dipper!"

"Ha, I've heard... that one before..." Ford's left hand was propped up on a rock, it held the pistol shakily but already charged and ready to fire. "I won't... fall for that one... again." His voice coming in fits and punctuated by blood bubbling out of his mouth.

"I swear it's me! Ask the question, confirm it!" Dipper stared at the end of the barrel as the charge built to a white hot point. If Ford didn't discharge it soon, it would melt the containment shield and then they would both be dead.

"Who... who is... the love of your life?"

"What?!"

"Who!?" Stunned, Dipper hesitated to answer, the question was not one they chose, but then Ford would know the answer from reading his file. Yet saying it would in itself be a confirmation of his rebellion against the TC, making him unfit for a commission.

"Pacifica." Screw it; let them brand him a rebel.

The white discharge blinded him for a second and its heat seared the rain around them, the beam of pure light shot past his head and vanished into the mist. Dipper didn't know if Ford missed because of his injuries or on purpose, but was glad to be alive. The pistol slipped out of Ford's hand and landed in a puddle that evaporated with a sizzle. Ford's face was ashen, rain slicked with blood slowly oozing out the corner of his mouth; the old man was dying.

"You missed..."

"Because... she would miss you more..." Ford managed a smile and a coughing fit took hold of him.

Dipper leaned over Ford and examined the injuries, multiple holes oozed blood into the mud while the rain kept washing it away. He tried to stop the bleeding, place his hands over the worst of it, but there was just too much.

"This is Dipper. I need immediate medical e-vac!" Dipper screamed into the communicator on his left forearm. "Do you hear me?"

"We have you located, prepare for transport." A calm disembodied voice informed him.

"Ford, you with me? They're bringing us in. Hang on, just... hang on... please." He squeezed Ford's arm and the two of them locked eyes just as a ball of dazzling white light engulfed them and the world vanished.

When it reappeared again, a multitude of med-techs and medical equipment descended upon them from the edges of a pure white room. Ford was lifted into the air and surrounded by thousands of tentacle-like metallic feelers that poked and prodded his injures. He squirmed with pain but soon injections took that away and he slipped into a medical coma. The med-techs gently pushed his floating equipment covered body out an opening that appeared in the far wall.

Now that Ford was gone, Dipper tried to get up but was immediately pushed back down by one of the med-techs. "Please remain seated Mr. Pines." The med-tech informed him as a metallic tentacle wrapped itself around his left arm; it squeezed gently and pulsed softly and injections of a painkiller entered Dipper's bloodstream. The last thing he saw before oblivion was the white and red blood-stained floor of the transport room.


	2. Chapter 2: Master

He could hear her voice but couldn't understand what she was saying, her face showed excitement and her eyes shone with the inner light of two beautiful blue stars. She sat beside him on the steps of the grand staircase of her family's mansion; her blond hair flowed over her shoulders and fell in a perfect sheath down her back. She was exactly as he remembered her, so elegant and so far beyond him that to this day he was puzzled why she chose to fall in love with him. She was saying something important and looking directly into his eyes, he could almost catch the words.

"...how much longer?" The rough voice wasn't hers and as it invaded his dream it roused him out of the peaceful world he was in.

"He's awake now, just coming around." As his eyes slowly slid open a young woman's face floated in front of him, not hers. "Ah yes, there he is. You have a visitor Mr. Pines. Give him a moment to gather up his wits."

"He doesn't need a moment, he's an Augment. Now step outside, this is official TC business." As the med-tech left the room Dipper recognized the voice. It belonged to a Commander in the TC that he particularly disliked, a man called Michael Grafton, nicknamed Gruff due to his wonderful personality.

"Hello Commander Gruff sir, it's a particular pleasure to see you just as I wake up, sir." Dipper tried to sound as sarcastic as he possibly could, fully aware that it was completely lost on Gruff.

"Enough with the pleasantries, Mr. Pines, we have TC business to discuss." As Dipper's bed adjusted into a sitting position, Gruff walked up to the foot of it and placed his hands behind him. He then proceeded to look at Dipper with his customary scowl, his bold head furrowed and dark eyes narrowed on Dipper.

"Your injuries are not that severe and when you're ready the Time Commission would like to discuss with you the completion of your mission Mr. Pines, especially your comments shortly before your return." He paused for effect and then suddenly Gruff's face acquired a look Dipper had never seen on the man, a sheepishness that betrayed his inner workings. "Also, due to you being the one who defeated the shape-shifter called Ripper, the TC has officially decided to grant you a Commission and changed your status from Apprentice to Master. A change I personally disagree with." Gruff might be a Commander, but he never become a Master. His time as an Apprentice was cut short when he accidentally shot and killed his Master, completing the mission but failing never the less.

"Thank you Commander Gruff s..." Dipper felt the sudden change in the relationship between them and saw it also in Gruff's reaction. Gruff stiffened and his scowl took on a deeper meaning, the man truly hated him now. "You may inform the TC that as soon as I'm released I will report to them for a full debriefing."

"Very well sir." Gruff stood silently for a moment, looking just past Dipper, peeling the paint off the wall behind him with his eyes. "Will that be all, sir?"

"Yes, thank you Commander that will be all. Can you please send in the med-tech on your way out?" Not being used to giving orders Dipper strained to control his voice, he was ordering around a much older man, discretion was everything. Gruff saluted smartly, turned and left the room, but Dipper didn't relax. Why did the TC make him a Master? They obviously saw the recording and knew about Pacifica, so this didn't make any sense. Also why did they have Gruff bring him the message in person, sending something like this via the coms would have been much more efficient?

"Is there anything I can do for you sir?" The med-tech was a young woman with a tight bun of red hair and a smiling freckled face. She looked to be not long out of the Academy and not much older than he, but her movements betrayed an experience she could only have acquired in the field. Dipper watched her fuss around with the equipment; she reminded him of Wendy so much that for a moment he was back at the Mystery Shack. Sweaty palms and all! He needed time to think, a thousand questions swirled in his head, but first the important stuff.

"Y... Yes, could you let me know the status of Master Pines' recovery?"

"Sir?" The tech looked puzzled.

"I mean Master Ford Pines, what is his status?" This was going to take some time to get used to.

"Oh, he is recovering well sir. We have him in the room next to yours, if you'd like to visit you may, sir."

"Thanks, I'd like that." Dipper started to get out of bed when his vision suddenly refused to co-operate with reality. He didn't know when he ended up on the floor, but once there reality no longer made sense, he now stood in a ring of fire while yelling at someone just out of sight. - "She will die! You can't do this, it's madness!" "Yes, yes she will!" - - -

The young tech was now helping him up, he could see her speaking but all he heard was the answer repeating itself over and over. "... yes she will!" What the hell was that? Where was he? His body still felt the heat from the fire, his hands felt burnt and a smell of smoke hung in the air. He looked around the room, no sign of fire and no sign of anything the matter with it, the med-tech looked just as she did before and still speaking to him.

"... than you thought, sir."

"What?"

"I said you must have suffered more damage than you thought, sir." She looked a bit worried. "Perhaps you need more time to recover, sir."

"No... no, I feel better now, just a temporary dizziness... ha-ha, that's all. Please show me to Master Ford's room now." That was just another experience among thousands to be filed for later. He steadied himself against the bed and then walked out the door; the tech followed him outside then directed him to his left.

"He's in here, sir." A slight touch on the wall and the opening into the room appeared; as he walked through it Dipper was not prepared for the sight before him: Ford was floating in a sea of metallic tentacles. They were all moving and pulsating in a wild dance around his injured body, some touching him with their tips while others slithering around the worst of the wounds.

"It often catches people off guard to see their family members in such a state, but believe me sir, he is doing very well." The med-tech walked into the room and proceeded to fuss over more equipment.

"How long before I can talk to him?" Dipper needed answers and here was the only man that could provide them, incapacitated.

"That's hard to tell sir, he suffered a great deal of injuries to his lungs and heart." She again checked over more equipment, looking through the read-outs that showed dose statistics. "He is on a very high dose of multiple medications, but he is responding well to treatment. Perhaps you'll be able to speak to him soon."

Dipper walked up to Ford and looked at his face, the man was old and being cared for by so many 'things' made him look even older. He recalled those first days when Stan brought Ford back though the portal, back then Ford looked invincible, able to fight off a swarm of monsters before breakfast and still have the energy to regale the kids with stories of his escapades. After the TC recalled Ford and picked Dipper for the apprenticeship, he again watched Ford go through chaos to accomplish his mission. But even with his augmented body, Dipper knew that Ford was slowing down and that one day it might cost him his life. He loved him and the thought of losing him broke Dipper up inside.

"He will recover, you know. It's not that bad." Wendy's arm rested on Dipper's shoulder as he looked into her eyes and at that moment all he wanted to do was to kiss her, but it wasn't Wendy, it was the med-tech, and that's when Ford cried out!

"You must save her! She's... she can't die... you must!" Dipper rushed over to Ford's side.

"Ford?! What's going on?" Ford's eyes were wide open staring up with a desperate wild look; he was mumbling something under his breath and his whole body shook with an effort to move. The med-tech rushed over and attempted to restrain him and finally with the help of the machines they managed to keep him still.

"Dipper, save her..." Ford's voice was just above a whisper.

"Who do I need to save?"

Ford tilted his head towards Dipper and slowly mouthed the word: Pacifica.


	3. Chapter 3: Interrogation

Dipper did not report to the TC when he was finally released. As a Master he knew he had some discretion as to his behaviour and this he could get away with. So instead he spent time at Ford's bedside, waiting and hoping Ford would either wake up or say something more, but for five days nothing happened and by then Dipper was out of time.

On his way there, Dipper decided to enter the TC through its main building, through The Great Hall of the Time Commission. The walk through the Great Hall was like a walk through the history of time. Giant murals that portrayed everything from the birth of the universe to the first intelligent life on Earth lined its walls, and together with the massive uninterrupted glass ceiling this gave the illusion of having stepped into another world. The last time Dipper walked through this building was when Ford brought him in as his apprentice, now two years later he himself was a master with enough experience to one day choose his own apprentice. The deeper he traveled in the building, the more recent the murals become, until Dipper reached the one that had an image of him. He stopped in front of it to look at the day that changed everything and when he actually became a hero. It was the mural portraying the demise of Time Baby at the hands of Bill, and the chaos that ensued on future Earth. Here was the beginning of the Time Commission, the one institution that had the power to bring Earth back from the brink of collapse and its thousand year wait for Time Baby to come back.

The longer he looked at it the more real it became, until he could stand it no more; the memories were too powerful and they threatened to overwhelm him. Since becoming Ford's apprentice, Dipper came close to dying so many times that facing the Time Commission's full court did not even faze him, but the chaos of Wierdmageddon proved too much for his emotions. Back then the nightmares started soon after his return home from Gravity Falls. There were nights when staying awake was no better than sleeping, those nightmares haunted his waking hours as much as in the land of dreams.

He finally broke the spell and joined a crowd of new recruits that headed towards the reception at the other end of the building. Here a young man sat perfectly still looking diligently at him as Dipper approached the desk.

"May I help you Master Pines?" The voice was soft, pleasant and a bit creepy.

"Yes, I'm here for my debriefing."

"Today?" The young man asked after a momentary pause where he looked a bit puzzled.

"Yes today. I was informed to report as soon as I was well enough, so here I am."

"The Time Commission has decided that your debriefing will take place together with Master Ford Pines' after he also has recovered. It is imperative that we receive the information of your last mission with as little miscommunication as possible." The young man responded without looking away from Dipper.

"So they don't want to talk to me now?"

"That is correct, Master Pines. Will there be anything else, sir?" His voice became even creepier.

"No, that is all, thank you." Dipper answered as he turned and started to walk away. What was going on? Never before had Ford been present at any of his debriefings. Was this because of Pacifica? He needed time to think, perhaps somewhere alone where he could look over the recording of the last mission and grab some lunch. Maybe his memory missed something.

"Master Pines?" The voice came from his right and when Dipper turned he saw it belonged to the young med-tech who reminded him so much of Wendy.

"Yes, ah... sorry I didn't catch your name."

"It's Leanne, Master Pines." She dislodged herself from a group of other med-techs and briskly walked over to Dipper. "I thought I recognized you, sir." Her smile and bright eyes absolutely disarmed him. "I was hoping to run into you outside the Med-Centre." She pointed to the group of med-techs staring wide-eyed at his six foot muscled frame and Master's uniform, "My friends and I just finished our final exams and are heading over to the entertainment complex for some fun, perhaps you'd like to join us, sir?" Dipper's mind flipped back and forth between a desire to be alone and to be with her.

"Ahm... well... perhaps another time, I'm... sort of busy at the moment. But thank you for the invite Leanne." Dipper wanted to change his mind but also knew that it could be dangerous for him to be around her.

"Are you sure sir?" She placed her hand on his arm and his palms felt sweaty immediately. "We were hoping to play a game of Parkour-tag but we need one more player to have even teams." The possibility to show-off his skills was almost too much, it would be so easy to win a game against a bunch of med-techs.

"I... well..." Come on Dipper, you're a Master now behave like one. "That is to say..."

"But if you'd rather..." Leanne turned to her friends and shouted. "I'll see you guys later; I think I'd rather grab something to eat." Some of her friends begged her to come, while others snickered and told her to enjoy herself as they all left running and jumping over planters and benches all the way across the Great Hall. They made a big show of how relieved they were to have their final exams done with.

"So sir, would I presume too much if I guessed you'd rather grab a bite to eat?" That smile again.

"No, you're right, I was thinking of grabbing some lunch and you're welcomed to join me. But you didn't have to ditch your friends like that." Perhaps if they were in a larger group this wouldn't be so awkward.

"Oh, they'll be fine. I can beat them all at the games, no challenge there at all; it gets kind of boring after a while." He watched as she reached up and removed the pins that held her hair in a bun and as it fell in a red cascade down her back, he again had the desire to just reach over and kiss her. Instead he started to walk towards the far exit.

"By the way, call me Dipper. Sir is for my uncle and I'm not there yet." He wasn't sure he'd ever be.

"Ok, Dipper. That's an odd name where did that come from?" As Leanne ran up to him, Dipper had a distinct feeling of being watched. He turned around and caught the eye of the receptionist who was scrutinizing him without blinking.

"The name comes from my birthmark; it was in the shape of the Big Dipper."

"A birthmark? Where? Can I see it?" Leanne sounded more excited than she should have.

"Ah... well... ah, it's very faded now so... well... I don't think you can actually see it, but it was on my forehead. Nothing as exciting as..." Before Dipper realised what she was about to do, she grabbed him around the middle and spun herself around to look directly into his face. With her feet firmly planted, she was immovable and Dipper was forced to stop and look directly into her eyes. Leanne ran her hand up to Dipper's face and slowly moved his thick hair up and off his forehead. She scrutinized the empty space.

"Yup, I can still see a faint outline and it does look like the Big Dipper." Her eyes lowered and locked on his and at that moment, looking down into Leanne's eyes, Dipper almost gave in and kissed her.

"Oh...?!" He placed his hands on her middle and slowly, gently manoeuvred her to the side.

"Let's just get some lunch, ok?" The effort to cool his desire and let the moment pass was monumental.

"Ok." A look of surprise ran across her face and Dipper heard a slight note of disappointment in her voice.

They grabbed lunch from a local stand selling food from the 20th century; one benefit of time travel was food from every time-period imaginable. After walking about the city's main concourse for a bit, silently eating their lunches, they settled on a park bench across from a reflective pool with a monument to the Time Baby. The great white obelisk at the centre of the pool gleamed in the sunlight, shining with an ever changing rainbow of colours that created the illusion it was emerging from the very core of the Timescape.

"How's your 'subway' sandwich?"

"It's ok, but nothing like the real thing. They taste better back home." With every bite Dipper was reminded how much he missed home. Leanne finished hers and sat cross legged on the bench beside him.

"Who's Wendy?" Dipper's last bite caught in his throat, he managed to grab his drink in time not to choke.

"What?! How... how do you know that name?"

"She's someone important isn't she?" Leanne's eyes narrowed on Dipper as she turned to look at him and a smirk formed on her lips. She was on a hunt and he was the prey.

"Yes she is, but how would you know about her? I haven't told you anything about my pa..."

"Relax Dipper, I heard you speak her name while you slept in a chair in your uncle's room." Leanne looked so much like Wendy, Dipper could almost match their freckles to one another. She was very much in her element, relaxed yet focused and very inquisitive.

"I spoke her name in my sleep?" Dipper wasn't sure he could trust that.

"You said many things, Wendy's name was one of them and another, ahm... Paci... Pacif..."

"Pacifica!" Dipper finished.

"Yes that's it, Pacifica! Now tell me who is _she_?" Leanne emphasised 'she' as if this was her real target. She leaned over closer to Dipper and placed her hands on his thigh.

"Someone I left behind." Dipper leaned back on the bench and took a deep breath, his eyes glazed over and memories flooded in. "In a way, you know, she actually saved me."

"Ooh, sounds like there is an interesting story there, I'd love to hear it. Would you mind?" Now!

Gently Dipper took Leanne's hands in his and felt the smoothness and warmth of her skin. He looked into her face and smiled while studying everything about it, her freckles, the shape of her cheekbones, and the shape of her eyes. He tightened his grip on her hands until she could not move.

"Now, would you like to tell me who you are or do I need to break your hands to find out?" Leanne's eyes grew large at the realisation of what just happened, she squirmed and tried to yank her hands free, but Dipper's grip was iron.

"Dipper, it's me Leanne! Please let me go, you're hurting me!" She tried one more deception.

"The game is over! Talk!" Leanne struggled in his hands a bit more but without success, then her body relaxed, she had no way out.

"Fine, but could you loosen up a little please, my hands are falling asleep." She grimaced at the discomfort.

"Not yet."

"Really? You've got me; there is no where I can go."

"In my experience this is usually the moment you would try your best to run."

"Ok, ok." Leanne sighed. "I'm from the TC's Secret Service." She looked expectantly at Dipper, but he didn't react. "Wow, they really pushed you hard. Is there anyone you trust these days?"

"Yes, but you're not him."

"Fine, how would you like me to prove this to you? Call my boss perhaps? Look you already know I'm human, what more do you need?"

"Show me the tech that is hiding your real face."

"What? No!" Leanne's face showed genuine shock as she struggled again to break free.

"It's either that or broken hands." This was not him, had he gone too far?

"Ask for anything else, but that is not happening!" Dipper twisted his wrist and put pressure on Leanne's hand. She hissed between her teeth and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. "Please, this is all I have! I beg you, don't make me do this!" With that Dipper released her.

"Now, tell me a story." Leanne rubbed her wrists as she studied Dipper.

"Pacifica, it's all about her. I was sent to find out about your relationship and if you have been back to see her."

"So they are curious about her, why didn't they just ask? I would have told them all they wanted to know."

"Perhaps, but the TC couldn't trust in that. They needed to see your interaction with someone like Wendy. They know how much she means to you and they wanted to test your bond with Pacifica, they wanted to know how strong it is." Dipper needed to think, this had given him some of the answers but not all. "By the way, how did you figure me out?"

"Leanne, I'm an Augment with an eidetic memory, there is no way in all of time and history that you and Wendy would have identically placed freckles. Unless it was by design." Dipper smiled at how he saw through such an elaborate disguise.

"Ah yes, too perfect. Well, that's something to remember for next time."

"Next time?"

"Well, not you of course!" Leanne smiled and let herself relax. "Look I'm sorry for all this, but it is my job you know, just like yours is hunting time criminals. No hard feelings?"

"No hard feelings, we're good. It's actually nice to see her face again."

"About that, when was the last time you did see her _real_ face?" Leanne continued her interrogation, but Dipper didn't mind, this was easier to deal with than sitting in a stuffy room somewhere in the TC headquarters.


	4. Chapter 4: Questions

The recording 'blinked' with a flash of white light as the laser melted Ripper's head clean off.

"Here I thought it was faking yet again. I've never face a creature that could move as fast as a shape-shifter and Ripper had more experience than any other I met." Dipper recalled the first time he met one and the memory still brought on shivers and a cold sweat.

Leanne watched the recording with a morbid fascination, even after two hours she could hardly pull her eyes away from it. Dipper narrated as much as he could and answered any and all questions she posed, but there were moments when all he wanted to do was to look away. The final battle between the three of them had been a brutal one and utterly exhausting, and perhaps the damage was more than just physical. Yet again.

"Ford asked you a question that was not on the list you two agreed to, why?" They had reached those last few minutes of the recording with the 'Pacifica' moment. "This is a clear break from protocol."

"Yes it is..." Dipper thought about it for a moment, "Ripper wasn't like the others, he was a true genius and changing the question was Ford's way of keep him of balanced. I believe that he knew I would catch on and answer truthfully." So here it was; an official admission of his bond with Pacifica.

"I see..." Leanne narrowed her eyes and waited until the recording ran out. She was quiet for a long time and Dipper hoped she'd want to stop and grab something to eat; he was getting hungry and needed a break from re-living all that chaos. But Leanne kept her eyes focused on the space where the holographic recording ceased to exist. Her red hair fell about her shoulders and partially obscured her face, and again Dipper was transported to that summer with Wendy. His feelings began to play with his mind and he had to look away to keep from reaching for her.

"Do you love her?" Right to the point. Dipper had to blink away his memories before he answered.

"Yes, yes I do." There was no turning back now.

"In that case I don't understand something. Why did the TC make you a Master and give you a Commission?" Leanne looked puzzled. "From what you just said and what I have seen, you're obviously Temporally Entangled to Pacifica; this doesn't make any sense." She got up off of the bench and started to pace. "I was told to investigate and assess to see if you are compromised by an entanglement and you just proved that you not only are, but that the TC knows about it! What is going on?" Frustrated and deep in thought, she sat back down beside him and pulled her knees up to her chest.

"You know, ever since Gruff came to the Med-Centre to talk to me, I've been wondering the same thing. So when I went for my debriefing I hoped to get some answers but they cancelled that and instead sent you to test me. Now it looks like we're both in the same boat." The TC had played them both and as Dipper looked at Leanne, he realized that she had now taken this mystery on as her own and not just his alone. But why would the TC hold back information from one of their investigators, and what role did Leanne play in all of this?

"Maybe we're wrong..." Leanne looked earnestly at the ground, as if she expected the answers to grow amongst the grass. The Time Commission took loyalty to its cause very seriously, so Dipper knew that Leanne would find it hard to accept this discrepancy. "Could there be something we're missing, something you're missing? Maybe it's something from your past with Pacifica?" Now her scrutiny fell on him and her eyes studied his face intently looking for answers.

"Yes, I thought about that too, but there is nothing from what I remember that could explain why the TC agreed to promote me." He looked away from her penetrating gaze as memories of that summer flooded his mind, the mysteries with their dangers and the excitement of the search for the journal's author. After that, the phone calls and the time spent during March Break and the following summer vacation.

"But how did you get together, as far as I know you two hated each other?"

"True, but everything changed when I went to help her family with a ghost problem."

"Yes I read about that; you sure gave a lot of detail on how to fight a category eleven specter. All that running around and looking for a silver mirror when all you needed was to convince one of the Northwest's to open the gate." Leanne smirked.

"Yes, well they sort of lied to me about what the ghost wanted." Dipper tried to leave much of what he and Pacifica did that evening out of the report. "It wasn't until the ghost himself told me, that I finally found a way to defeat him, well actually it wasn't me but Pacifica who did it."

"Ok yeah, but what changed that evening? Your report does not mention much about your relationship."

"I know I sort of left that part out."

"Why?" Leanne looked confused, full disclosure was something the academy taught all of its recruits.

"Well, because I knew what it meant and I would have lost the apprenticeship if I told them everything. This meant a lot to me, I was finally going to work with Ford and see and experience all the things that he did." Dipper actually spent very little time at the academy; most of his time was with Ford and in the field, because becoming a Master was more of a hands-on work rather than a classroom kind of experience.

"Ah yes, of course, silly me." She turned away sheepishly and then came back with a question. "So what did happen between you two?"

Dipper took a deep breath and accepted the obvious need to explain the depth of his relationship with Pacifica. "That was the evening that we saw a different side to each other and gained a new perspective on our relationship. I learned that she wasn't all that, well, nasty and I guess something in me captured her eye." Dipper recalled that first hug, it was the first time that he felt strangely at ease around a girl so close to him. "But that evening was hardly a beginning; our relationship didn't grow any more until several months later. Wierdmaggedon was over and we were back home, but the horrors of it came back to haunt me. I started having nightmares and well... hallucinations."

"I don't blame you; you were just a kid back then." Leanne's voice was sympathetic, she looked genuinely concerned.

"You know, I'm not that much older."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm only sixteen."

"What?! That can't be true, you don't look sixteen and they wouldn't put a teenager through what you just showed me." Leanne looked shocked and agitated by this news.

"Oh, they put me through it alright and a lot more. I was only fourteen when I joined, but you should know this because you obviously read my file."

"I read it twice and had to study Wendy for a month, but nowhere in there is your age given. I found it odd at first but I ignored it because I had so much work to do. Now I see why they left that out, you're the youngest master on record, I'm not even sure if that's legal." There was admiration in her eyes and something more, something that made Dipper a bit concerned.

"That makes this an even greater mystery, doesn't it? Why would they want me to become a Master at such a young age?" Leanne just told him something he didn't know before, young teens of sixteen did not become masters. "What could the reason possibly be that they would break so many of their rules to make me a master?"

"I don't know, but continue your story maybe there is something there that'll show us." Leanne made herself comfortable on the bench and was ready to listen attentively, but Dipper was tired or at least tired of re-living his past.

"Listen, how about if we take a break and get something to eat, we've been at this for over three hours and I'm getting hungry. Say, a dinner break?"

"Ok, your treat!" Leanne said it with a big smile and jumped off the bench with enthusiasm. This sudden change surprised Dipper. He had begun to learn that Leanne's behaviour was as unusual and unpredictable as some of the creatures he chased. This made her even more appealing and dangerous.

"Sure thing, where to?" It's been a while since Dipper spent more than a day in the city; it had changed a lot in two years. Some places he recognized but new buildings replaced old familiar ones and the constant change made it look almost brand new.

"Well, I need to go home first to change, how about you?"

"The uniform will do for me; I can customize it to look like civilian clothing, I think I can blend in without a problem." Dipper was thankful that the master's uniform was designed to be functional and adaptable. Everything he needed was in it, including hidden weapons.

"Suit yourself!" Leanne laughed at her own pun, and then took off running across the green field towards the monument. Dipper sat for a moment and watched her run; her hair lifted into the air and caught the setting sun, she looked like a red fiery shooting star. It was then that he realized he was in trouble; it had been two years since he last saw Pacifica and he could feel a pull towards Leanne. This was not going to be an easy evening, not by a long shot.


	5. Chapter 5: Monsters

Leanne's vision slowly came back to normal, but the pain in her temple did not diminish. She felt slow and heavy; every attempt at movement denied, every breath an accomplishment. She could hear things break around her and people screamed in fear, she lifted her head off of the ground to look around. What she saw through the dust was a mass of strange reptile-like creatures in the street outside the cafe, and amongst them moved a blur. It never stayed in one place for even a moment but moved between them, on top of them and crushed through them. She put her head back down and closed her eyes.

The evening went great; the two of them had a wonderful time at dinner, the conversation flowed while the food was left mostly untouched. She felt at ease with him. For the first time in a long while, she didn't have to pretend to be someone else, rather she had the freedom to be herself and this meant the world to her. True the TC gave her a free-hand to act as she needed but when Dipper found her out, she let it all go and dropped the pretence. Then eventually there was no more work and no more TC. She was finally free!

After dinner she led him to an old fashioned dance club, Dipper was reluctant at first but she convinced him to give it a chance. The dance music was from his time period and it appeared that he knew it and soon he relaxed and joined her on the busy dance floor. They danced and laughed and danced some more and it was then she realized she truly had begun to fall for him... for the one she was suppose to interrogate. How unprofessional of her, but then that's what happens when you let go of your training and simply be free.

Every look from him was desired, every touch of his hand was electric and his closeness stilled her breath. She thought she had lost her mind; she was after all a professional interrogator, trained to keep a distance from her target. How did this happen?

They left the nightclub late into the evening and as they walked down the now empty streets, Leanne could not stop flirting with him. It was the most fun she'd had in, well, she couldn't remember how long. They headed to a coffee shop she'd never been to before, one with a quiet atmosphere and tasty drinks where her heart wandered off even more and her mind followed. They found an empty table and while their conversation moved from topic to topic, their flirting got worse. She sat so close to Dipper she could feel the warmth of his body. Soon her hand entwined with his and...

The flash of white light was quickly followed by a blast of heat and noise. They were thrown across the cafe and somehow she ended up on the floor with a soft cloth beneath her head.

When she forced open her eyes again she saw a scene dusty and chaotic, illuminated by the broken and still swinging lights of the now destroyed cafe. In the midst of all that, a man made his way toward her and in his hands he carried two large curved blades that swung with each step he took and dripped a dark liquid. Her eyes closed involuntarily and when she managed to open them again there he was kneeling beside her covered in red blood and a black liquid, with a wild look in his eyes.

"Leanne..." Dipper reached out and placed his hand on her cheek. "...can you hear me?" She could, but her ears still rang and popped as she strained to hear him. "You have a bad cut on your head and I think your right leg might be broken." He looked down at it and touched it gently, but she didn't feel anything, pain or otherwise. "You also might have some internal injuries. Can you move?" She couldn't.

"I don't think so..." She was paralyzed and with this realization panic started to spread slowly through her mind. She watched Dipper's expression change from wild to worried, and wished she could reach out to touch his face for comfort. But nothing happened, her body didn't respond, the only movement she could do was with her head, it went up and it went down, she could look left and right.

"Don't worry, the med-techs are on their way, you'll be alright." Dipper's voice was calm and reassuring, he even managed to smile.

"What... what happened out there?" She managed to squeeze out her voice.

"An uncontrolled portal opened up in the street just outside the building." Dipper looked around the cafe, there wasn't much left to recognize the place. "It ripped half the block apart, and then these creatures came through and attacked the people. I think it might have been a dimensional portal too, because they sure looked familiar, maybe even from the Nightmare Realm."

"The what?" Confused she tried to remember where she heard that name before.

"The Nightmare Realm, it's where Bill was from."

"Yes... yes I remember that but... are you sure?" As far as she knew the doorways had been sealed shut. The TC's technology made sure that nothing like this would ever happen again. The Time Commission controlled all time travel and any and all movement between Earth and other dimensions, nothing like this should have been possible. Ever!

"Yes I'm sure of it; I've met creatures similar to these." Dipper wiped a dark stain from his forehead.

"Is that their... blood?" Dipper looked at his arm and hesitated for a moment.

"Yes..." The panic in her began to affect her mind and she needed to get control of it. The only way Leanne knew how to do that was to fall back on her training; she become an interrogator again and hoped Dipper would forgive her later.

"Tell me, was that you battling them out there in the street?" With her voice barely above a whisper, she asked him a question she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to. It was one thing to watch a battle on a holographic projection, but to see one and experience it in person was another.

"Yes..." Dipper didn't elaborate and she saw that the questions made him uncomfortable, but she knew she had to press him. In her weakened state it was hard to concentrate on proper questions to ask, but her training gave her the tools.

"Where did you... where did you learn to do that?" The Masters were issued many different weapons, but they usually consisted of lasers or stunners, never curved swords. So it wasn't part of standard Master training to fight hand to hand the way Dipper just did.

"The multi-verse hides many secrets, and sometimes when you're lucky you get to learn something that might help you in the future." Dipper's eyes glazed over when he gave her that cryptic answer and Leanne didn't like that. It become obvious Dipper hid something from her and the TC. Could this be what she had been looking for?

"Dipper, please tell me the truth, can you... can you... travel the multi-verse and through time... of your own volition?" His face froze. Finally. "Is that where you've seen these creatures before... and where you learned to fight them?" ...and what about Pacifica?

Dipper smiled at her, it was one of those sweet smiles that close friends give each other when they have been keeping a secret that just came out. But before Leanne could hear Dipper's reply, reality stopped making sense. Suddenly she was running down a long metallic and circular corridor holding something wet. She looked down at her hands; they were soaked in blood with a broken blade in her right and a thin elongated object with multiple protrusions that looked like a messed-up key in her left. Then from up ahead she heard Dipper's voice, "She will die! You can't do this, it's madness!" The reply was screamed back at him, "Yes, yes she will and I'll make sure you will suffer for it!" ... and then the world went to black.

Dipper sat slumped in a chair beside her bed and watched Leanne as she slept. Her eyes flickered back and forth under her eyelids; she was dreaming and he hoped it was not a nightmare about the cafe.

"She sure looks a lot like Wendy, doesn't she?" Ford's familiar voice nudged him back to the present.

"Yeah, I know." Dipper mumbled. Earlier, Dipper related to him everything that had happened while he was unconscious, including Dipper's slip about their travels. Ford didn't seem too worried about it, his response was that whether they know it or not, there is nothing they can do about it. That was true, but Dipper was still worried.

"You alright kid?"

"No, not really. I feel like I failed, that this is somehow my fault because I didn't act fast enough or..."

"Dipper..." Ford placed his hand on his shoulder and turned him around.

"Ford, listen! Before I got my ass into the fight, those things tore apart several people. If I wasn't so enamored with her and stayed to make sure she was ok, perhaps I could have saved them! I think she's making me lose focus."

"Dipper my boy, what happened to those people is not your fault! If anything, you did more to save them than anyone else out there, you're a hero. Remember that!" Ford looked into his eyes. "The fault lies with those we are chasing; whoever they are we must be getting close to them, because they sent those monsters after you. As for Leanne," Ford cast a look at her, "well that's a battle you need to learn how to fight on your own, but remember this: you will only fall if you let yourself fall, it's a choice we make."

"I don't want to fight two battles." Dipper looked over at Leanne; she was beautiful even if what he saw was only a copy she still stirred his feelings, but then he forced them down. "I love Pacifica." In saying this, Dipper recognized the strength and finality of that statement and his confidence returned.

"Good. Now when she awakes, administer the truth-tooth-serum and ask her the question. We need to know if she can be trusted."

"She can be the TC is keeping secrets from her as well."

"Perhaps, but remember that she is a TC interrogator, we can't trust anything she says until we know the truth."

"Ok, I'll give her the serum."

"Good, now the TC has already sent two messages so I guess I have to go and face them." Ford started for the door. "We'll meet later back at the apartment, till then good luck."

"Wait, I thought they wanted to talk to us together? Or was that just a ruse to have me talk to Leanne?" Ford stopped in the doorway.

"Well, to me it sounds like you already had your debriefing with Leanne, so I guess now it's my turn. Wish me luck." As Ford walked out of the room Leanne stirred in her sleep and some of the metallic tentacles wrapped themselves around her arms in response to her movement. The paralysis was as a result of swelling and it quickly went away when the Med-Centre's machinery got a hold of her. By now the gravest injury was the broken leg and even that was healing rather quickly.

"I hope I can trust you Leanne, because we sure could use someone with your skills." Dipper whispered, and just then Leanne's eyes fluttered open. "Hey, welcome back."

Leanne looked around the room and her smiling gaze rested on Dipper. "Hi... how long...?"

"You've been a sleep for the past two days."

"Two days?" Leanne looked shocked.

"Yes, how do you feel?" Dipper touched her hand.

"Hey, I can feel that!"

"Your paralysis was only because of swelling around your spine and they fixed that." Dipper pointed to the tentacles surrounding her. "They look weird but they sure work wonders."

"I know I actually had to study how they work when the TC assigned me to you." She ran a hand over one of them and it vibrated in an almost animal-like behaviour. "I wonder if you could get me some water please."

"Sure thing." Dipper saw an opportunity for the truth-serum. He poured a glass and handed it to her. Leanne too it and was about to drink but stopped.

"I heard you and Ford talking." Her voice had an undertone of anger. "I'm not that stupid!"

"I know Leanne, and trust me the water is fine." But the glass wasn't, the serum didn't need to be ingested just simply touched and Dipper covered the glass in it. "How about you tell me how much of our conversation you heard?"

"All of it and I wish you would have been more forceful with me before I fell in love with you!" Leanne looked both angry and hurt, and Dipper suddenly felt ashamed at leading her on.

"I'm sorry Leanne; I should have stopped it before it went too far."

"Yes you should have!" Leanne crossed her arms in a huff.

"Leanne," Dipper walked up to the window and looked out at the massive city spread before him, and then turning back he asked "I need to know if I can trust you with my life. If push comes to shove, would you... betray the Time Commission for me?" He looked earnestly in her eyes and hoped.

Leanne sat there quietly looking shocked as she took a sip of water. Dipper could see in her face that the question was more than a match for the serum; Leanne struggled with the answer.

"I... I... I..." Dipper held his breath. "I heard what you said about the monsters and how they were sent by someone you're chasing?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Then I want in, this sounds like it's bigger than the TC. Is it?"

"It is. Now answer my question please."

"Dipper," Leanne took another sip from the glass, "yes, you can trust me and yes, I would betray the TC for you..." Here she stopped and looked away. "I recently have had my own doubts about them. There was nothing concrete but something just isn't right about it all, a feeling. You understand?"

"Yes, I do and that's how Ford and I ended up chasing this 'ghost'. There were too many unexplained incidences of time travel that could only..." The door opened and Commander Gruff walked in followed by a small security detail. At that same moment Dipper's communicator vibrated. Dipper sneaked a quick look and saw a massage from Ford, it was only one word: RUN! Without a second thought Dipper moved over to Leanne and placed his hand on hers.

"Master Mason Pines aka. Dipper and Agent Leanne Corduroy, you are hereby placed under arrest for..." Gruff never got the chance to finish before the room was filled with a dazzling white light and both Dipper and Leanne vanished into it.


	6. Chapter 6: Monastery

"Shit, I missed!" Dipper's first words as the sleet hit his face. Next was the thought that this would not go well with Leanne.

"What the hell!" Leanne screamed as she landed in the snow. "Ah, it's so cold here!"

"Sorry, but I didn't have much time to calculate our jump." Dipper yelled over the sound of the wind. Gruff caught him off guard and his calculation was off, not by much but by enough to land them in the middle of a snow storm rather than on the inside of the Monastery.

He bent down and helped Leanne to stand up and she held on to him for support; her leg was still broken but luckily the tentacle repairing the bone was still attached. What wasn't lucky was that Leanne only wore her Med-Centre gown and was halfway to frozen by now.

"Can...n...n you g...g...get me ou...u..u...t of here?!" She sputtered out from between bluish lips.

"Yes, hold on, I'll make a short relocation-jump." This time he could see his target; just up the hill stood the Monastery and the protection they needed. Dipper focussed his thoughts on the math and instantly realized his mistake, he didn't account for Dimensional Drift. Fortunately a relocation-jump was nothing like a dimensional-jump so the math was simpler and he instantly brought them within the confines of the Monastery's main atrium.

"I'm...sorr...I'm...sorry...Dipp..." Leanne started to collapse as soon as the heat surrounded them; she was covered in snow and shivering uncontrollably. He picked her up and carried her up the main stair to one of the visitor apartments, while she shivered in his arms and mumbled incoherently.

Once in, he laid her on the bed, covered her in blankets and ran to the bathroom to start a hot bath. At these elevations, the temperatures outside were deadly to anyone without proper protection. Fortunately the Master's uniform had a self-regulating heating and cooling system. Dipper thought that he could probably even survive in the vacuum of space for a short time, as long as he had an oxygen mask of course. When the bath was ready he helped her to the bathroom and made sure she got in safely, and then he left and headed for the main kitchen.

The Monastery was a self-running complex of interconnected buildings situated amongst the beauty of the highest peaks on a mountainous planet in Dimension 53. It served as a summer retreat for its citizens, and it being winter at the moment was completely abandoned and a good place to hide out for a while. It was the main location Ford and he agreed on as a refuge in difficult times.

The Monastery's structure was specially designed to confuse its visitors, providing the citizens of this world with a strange type of problem solving relaxation they enjoyed. With its internal machinery well hidden within the massive stone walls, the Monastery would shift its architecture periodically for maximum effect. This seemingly random movement combined with the constant sound of wind gave the impression that the Monastery was a living, breathing creature. Fortunately Dipper was familiar with most, if not all, of its possible combinations; he therefore quickly got his bearings and headed for the main kitchen, the rallying point.

On his way there, Dipper ran through several scenarios of what could have possibly gone wrong and why Gruff tried to arrest them? Was it because of their abilities? Could the 'ghost' be involved, but how? Was Ford ok, did he make it out before they arrested him? Maybe he should have stayed on Earth longer to let Gruff finish what he was saying before making the jump. He hoped to get some answers soon.

Deep in thought, Dipper became so distracted by those questions and the recent events with Leanne that he stopped paying attention to his way. He no longer traveled with a purpose but wandered aimlessly through the Monastery's windblown corridors. When the walls moved to block his way Dipper, without realizing it, began to get increasingly frustrated at the need to change direction to avoid dead-ends.

The two years he spent hunting time-criminals with Ford and learning to become a Master, gave Dipper a sense of invincibility. He was the "Protector of Time and the hunter of the 'ghost'", a title he secretly gave himself, a title he was proud of. Then Leanne happened along and he thought he lost his mind when he abandoned his devotion to Pacifica. When Gruff of all people, cornered him so easily in the Med-Centre, Dipper began to doubt his skills. As the Monastery's machinery focused increasingly on blocking his way, Dipper's mood grew darker and his anger seethed. He began to think of all he had given up by joining Ford and the TC. Was it all worth it? Two years away from his family, from Mable, from a proper school and a sane life! Two years away from Pacifica...

Another dead-end!

"ENOUGH!"

His anger finally burst as he punched the stone hard enough to chip it. The searing pain that shot through him turned his vision red and he submitted to the darkness within. As he spun away from the wall, he exploded into a run. Windows, doors, hallways, and courtyards, all flew by in a blur as he sped through the Monastery. His legs moving faster than humanly possible, his lungs working harder than ever before, he ran through hundreds of corridors, passages and halls. Then out of breath and drenched in sweat he skidded to a stop, his fists clenched and unclenched as an animalistic growl emanated from deep within him.

Suddenly a door opened at his side and a shadow moved within and in that instant all his anger focused on it. He exposed his swords and lunged through the doorway with inhuman speed, intent on separating head from body.

"Dipper! STOP!" Ford's voice cut through to him and froze him in place. As his crossed blades rested against a young woman's neck, the razor sharp steel drew a drop of blood that slowly made its way down to the hilt. Dipper followed the crimson trail up to the horror stricken face of Pacifica.

At first he had no recognition of her and then slowly the shock of what he almost did replaced the anger, and all his strength left him. The blades tumbled to the floor and stumbling he collapsed in a heap against the corridor wall. Deep sobs racked his body and tears flowed freely and blurred his vision.

"Forgive me... Pacifica... forgive me..." He watched as she recoiled from him and into Ford's protective arms.

Stunned, Pacifica grabbed at the cut on her neck and stumbled backwards. Ford managed to catch her before she fell to the floor.

"Pacifica, are you alright?" Ford asked. He sounded worried and shocked by what he saw.

"I... don't... what just... Dipper?" The shock at being almost decapitated by the man she loved muddled her mind. "Dipper why did you...?" Dipper lay crumbled against the wall, his right hand and forearm covered in blood with his whole body drenched in sweat, he looked haggard.

"Dipper what happened, were you attacked?" Ford walked briskly around her and knelt down beside him. "Are you injured anywhere else?" Dipper didn't answer.

Pacifica watched as Ford looked him over and examined his hand, the blood still seeped from the gashes on his knuckles. Quickly Ford reached into his trench coat and pulled out a bandage which he proceeded to wrap Dipper's bleeding hand with. This was not what she envisioned her reunion with Dipper would be like.

"How is he?" She wasn't sure if she should come closer or stay out of Ford's way. Was it safe to leave the kitchen? What she really wanted was to have her Dipper back.

"He looks to be ok, other than the hand. Dipper, can you tell us what happened?"

"No..." Dipper mumbled.

"Let me try." Pacifica decided that she needed to be close to him, needed to let him know she wasn't afraid of him.

"Wait." Ford walked up and down the corridor looking around corners making sure there was no one there. "Ok let me have a look at that cut first." She bent her head away so Ford could examine it. "It's not deep and it already stopped bleeding, you'll be fine." Ford bent down and picked up Dipper's swords then moved to stand beside him while Pacifica knelt down in front him.

"Hey nerd, I missed you." She rested a hand on his. "You sure grew tall since I last saw you. But you're still my nerd, you know that right?" She looked into his eyes and hoped he would look back. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"Can you forgive me...?" Dipper whispered.

"Yes, of course." He finally looked up and Pacifica was comforted by the love in his eyes. "But it's not like I care or anything." She said it with her usual smirk and hoped it would bring a smile to his face. It worked; Dipper brightened up immediately and started to get up off of the floor.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Ford asked again as Dipper stood up to his full six foot height. Pacifica's eyes widened when she realized just how tall he had grown and a secret smile crossed her face when she felt his powerful arms. In truth, both of them changed over the last two years, but what she saw in Dipper was no longer the little boy she remembered, but the man he was going to become. As soon as he regained his composure she noticed an air of confidence about him and a self-assured stride.

Dipper looked at her and Ford for a long moment, Pacifica wondered what he was thinking. Did he know that Ford recruited her as a spy in Gravity Falls? Did Ford tell him what she found? Was he aware of the dangers she faced before Ford came back to get her.

"I had to face..." Dipper looked to be searching for words. "...myself and those demons that haunt me." He looked at his right hand and slowly clenched it into a fist. "And this is the payment." Pacifica recalled those dark days following Wierdmageddon when their phone calls first started. Both of them were broken and faced nightmares from their battle with Bill, and in their mutual need for peace they found comfort in each other's words.

"Ok, so there is no one else here with us?" Ford asked.

"Actually, yes there is, Leanne." Dipper looked like he just remembered something important. "I left her in one of the rooms taking a hot bath because I sort of missed the jump and we ended up outside. I hope she did wander off in search of me."

"Who's Leanne and why is she taking a bath?" Pacifica wasn't sure if she should be worried, but a bath sounded unusual.

"Because we jumped directly from the Med-Centre to here and she was wearing very little clothing, I mean she only had a gown on, a Med-Centre gown, she is injured you see." Pacifica almost laughed at how flustered Dipper was when he tried to answer her question. "She's someone I met recently; actually she's an interrogator from the TC and was sent to find out about us."

"An interrogator from the TC?" Pacifica was lost. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but you will explain, right? Yes?"

"Yes, I'll explain." Dipper wrapped his arms around her and Pacifica found herself wanting to be alone with him. Her eyes looked deeply into his and she started to rise on her toes to kiss him. "I would also like to know how you got here." She was about to answer but Ford cut her off.

"Ok you two, we need to talk. All that can wait; you'll have time to greet each other later. Now step into the kitchen, we need to get our information sorted." Pacifica forgot that Ford was even there. "As for Leanne, she can wait. Even if she wandered off from her room, the Monastery will keep her occupied and we'll look for her later." Ford walk past them and stepped into the kitchen, but neither one of them moved. Instead Dipper bent down and simply kissed her. She'd waited two years for this and when Dipper started to pull away, Pacifica grabbed his head in her hands and pulled him right back. He was not getting away with only a peck.

"Mmm, salty." Smirk.


	7. Chapter 7: Mind Control

He sat in silence.

Pacifica watched unsure what was coming next as Dipper's face betray the anger brewing just below. Oblivious to Dipper's reaction, Ford still spoke about retrieving her from the past, but Pacifica no longer listened. She instead watched Dipper and waited for his response to this news.

"You did what?" Dipper's voice was low and hard.

"Wha...?" Ford finally stopped and looked up. Pacifica cast a quick glance his way.

"I spied on the people of Gravity Falls, looking for the 'ghost'."

"Because Ford asked you to?"

"Yes, but we didn't expect anything dangerous to happen, I was just supposed to be watching and..."

"Ford had to pull you out because your life was threatened and you're telling me this was nothing dangerous?" Then Dipper turned on Ford. "Why didn't you tell me any of this?!"

"Would you have agreed to let her do it?" Ford responded.

"Of course not, and for a good reason!" Dipper got up from the table and started to pace around the kitchen. "You know what the 'ghost' is capable of and you know that he does not care about people's lives. How could you let her be endangered like this?" Pacifica wanted to jump in and defend her actions, but she knew how much danger she'd ended up in, and all she would do is fan the flames.

"I needed to know what was going on in the town and there was nobody else I could trust." Ford looked perplexed and in search of a good answer. "But it all turned out just fine, she's here and she's safe."

"Only because you managed to break through the time-lock!" Dipper only became more furious with Ford's nonchalant response. "Also when did you manage to do that?"

"A couple of months ago." Ford answered sheepishly.

"You mean to tell me that you could communicate with Pacifica for two months and you didn't tell me about it?" Pacifica saw that this brought Dipper to his limit; if she didn't say something soon he might physically lash out at Ford. "Unbelievable! What else haven't you told me about?!" Dipper stood before Ford and glared at him.

"Dipper, this wasn't anything more dangerous than what we did when we fought Bill." That victory was why she agreed to Ford's request.

"There were other people with us then, now you were all alone." Pacifica got up and approached Dipper; she stood in front of him and placed her hand on his chest then looked up into his eyes.

"What's done is done, I'm here, I'm safe and I'm with you. Now let's talk about what I found. Ok?"

"He could have asked someone else like Wendy or Soos." Dipper calmed down but still wouldn't let go.

"No he couldn't, Soos is, well Soos and he and Melody are expecting, besides he has the Mystery Shack to run. As for Wendy, her family left Gravity Falls."

"What? When?"

"Soon after you left. It was because of Weirdmageddon, people became scared of going deep into the forest and that caused the lumber industry to dry up, so her father had to move the family up north to Canada. They live in British Columbia now." Pacifica remembered how hard it was to lose Wendy; they became good friends after Dipper left with Ford. "So you see there was no one else Ford could have asked, but me." With a deep sigh Dipper took her hand and kissed it.

"I don't want to lose you, that's all, and also I really missed you."

"I know and I you, but we're finally together so come on let's talk about what we have found." She led him back to the table. Dipper was still agitated but Pacifica could see he was calming down.

"Ok, so... uhm... where was I? Oh yeah, so I did as you asked and followed the hillbilly, I mean McGucket and discovered that he has been studying the Alien spaceship and not just to find new technology but to actually learn how the ship works. I think he's trying to figure out how to fly the thing." Pacifica still hadn't completely recovered from losing her house to him, but at least that loss gave her a chance to become closer to people like Wendy.

"That ship is thirty million years old and no matter how good Trilazzxx Beta's tech is, it cannot be flown. It's just too old and parts of it have disintegrated." Ford said. "I'm surprised Fiddleford even thinks it might work."

"Well, I saw him working on the controls in that room I told you about, the one you called the flight deck. He wasn't just studying them, he was testing them." Pacifica followed Fiddleford into the ship on several occasions, but it was that last trip that almost cost her her life.

"Did you ever see him with anyone else in that ship?" Dipper asked. "Someone not from the town?"

"No, he was always alone both at the ship and at the mansion." She snuck into the mansion as often as she could, after school and on the weekends. It was easy for Pacifica to do, after all the mansion once belonged to her family. "I tried to listen in on his conversations, but he talks to himself so much that I couldn't tell if he was on the phone or alone." She also tried to go through his papers, except that he coded everything he wrote. "My dad came over one time to talk with him, but I never got close enough to hear what they were saying. I figured that maybe my dad just wanted to see if he could get the mansion back; it hasn't been easy for him after losing that old place."

"So other than him trying to learn how to fly that thing and activating the dimensional doors, was there anything else that you saw him do?" Ford asked.

"No, but that wasn't the strangest part of it." Pacifica recalled looking into his eyes and seeing something odd.

"Oh?"

"His eyes were strange. I couldn't put my finger on it but there was something wrong with them."

"Bill!" Both Dipper and Ford said it simultaneously.

"Bill's possession always had an effect on the eyes; they would change shape and be distorted." Ford tried to draw how this would look, in the dust on the table. "It looked something like this, a line instead of a circle."

"No that's not what I saw; it was a kind of vacancy, like he was running on autopilot."

"I saw that once in Gruff's eyes too." Dipper recalled. "He was addressing a class of new recruits but he looked vacant. I assumed he was just bored but maybe there is more to it."

"Did you see this with any of the other town folk?" Ford leaned in and asked.

"Actually now that you mention it, yes I have. Surprisingly I saw it in Wendy's father's eyes as they were packing their final belongings and heading out." Pacifica got the chills when she recalled the vacant stare she received back from Mr. Corduroy, back then she thought he was just sad to be leaving.

"Interesting, this might mean that the 'ghost' can control people's minds, like Bill did. Could it have been possible for Bill to survive Stan's memory wipe?" Dipper sounded frustrated and perhaps a bit tired. Pacifica herself began to feel worn out; perhaps it was time for a break and maybe a nap. She tried to hold back a yawn unsuccessfully.

"Maybe..." Ford answered Dipper then got up and wandered about the kitchen scratching his beard and mumbling under his breath.

"Boo, you look tired, how about we stop and grab some rest?" Dipper placed his hand on hers and gave her a meaningful look. "We can continue this tomorrow, what do you think Ford? Ford?"

"Yes? What?" Ford looked as if Dipper had woken him from deep sleep. "Right, well there is also the matter of the uncontrolled portals, the anomalous dimensional readings and the fact that Gravity Falls is under a time-lock that we need to discuss." Both Pacifica and Dipper gave Ford a puppy-eye look. "But yes, perhaps we should take a break and also take care of Leanne; I think she might be hungry by now."

"Leanne! Oh wow, I forgot about her." Something about the way Dipper said her name made Pacifica hope that Leanne had drowned in that bath.

They filled several portable containers of food and a couple of thermoses of drink, and headed out to find Leanne. The Monastery had several information access points and one was in the kitchen. After they checked it to see if they could locate her, they found that she had not only left her room, but that she had gotten completely lost and was stranded in an isolated courtyard on the other side of the complex. It would take them a while to get there, hence Dipper and Ford needed to focus on the layout of the Monastery so as not to get lost. As a result Pacifica resigned herself to quietly following them through the living maze.

Wet, confused, wearing only a bathrobe and suffering from the effects of hypothermia, Leanne wandered through the Monastery for what seemed like hours. She dragged herself through the confusion of corridors not realizing that the walls moved to block her way. She tried to comprehend the situation, she tried to make sense of the maze but the further she walked the more lost she became. Finally her strength gave way, her broken leg throbbed with pain and Leanne could go no further. All her energy spent she collapsed amongst the plants of a little grassy courtyard.

She didn't know how long she lay there but a sudden flash of bright light pulled her awake and Leanne felt herself lifted into the air by a pair of strong arms. Someone carried her close to his body as she drifted in and out of consciousness and felt his rough clothing against her skin. After another flash of light, she breathed in the powerful scent of a forest after the rain. She didn't know where he was taking her or which direction they traveled in, all she knew was the strength of his arms, the warmth of his body and the scent of the forest. She was laid on a soft bed and covered with a heavy blanket, and was aware of a roof and walls around her and the smell of a burning fire. It was all comfortable and strangely familiar. She let herself slip into sleep and fall deep into a dream.

"Wendy. Wendy. Wake up sweetie. It's time to wake up." The deep soothing voice tried to take her dreams away.

"No...no...one more minute...I just want to sleep." She mumbled.

"I know but you need to drink this, it's for your health." The voice didn't give up, but all she wanted to do was sleep. "Come on honey, just sit up for a second and drink this, ok?"

"Hmm, ok..." She was helped into a sitting position and a cup was placed against her lips, the liquid was cold and sweet. She drank as much as she could then lay down on the bed and went back to sleep.

She dreamt of her father and his lessons on ax handling. He would show her how to hold it and then tell her about her mother. He would explain to her how to sharpen it and bring her mother's photo out of his back pocket. She loved his strong hands and that soft loving voice he used when he spoke about her mother. With him she knew who she was; with him she knew her family's history. She was Wendy Corduroy.

"I'm Wendy..." Her voice was only a whisper yet she knew her words were true. "I am Wendy Corduroy." Now louder. "I am Wendy!" She opened her eyes and sat up and there at the end of the bed sat Dipper.

"Yes, yes you are."

"Dipper, where are we and what happened to you?" He looked much older and rougher, long hair past his shoulders, a thick beard and lines that marked his face. This was not the Dipper she remembered, this was someone else.

"First, I need you to tell me: what is the last thing you remember after your family drove away from Gravity Falls?"

"What?" Her memory of that event was a jumble of images, a truck on the highway, her standing by the side of the road, a hooded figure and a cell phone ring-tone? "We were on the highway and my father pulled the truck over and told me to step out. I remember someone standing there waiting for me, but I could not see their face, then a cell phone rang. That's all I remember." She needed an explanation. "What's going on here, who are you really?"

"I am Dipper, just not _your_ Dipper and I go by the name of Mason."

"Not my Dipper?"

"Dimensional travel can be confusing sometimes, actually most of the time. This dimension is a few years ahead of the one you're originally from and as a result you and I are closer in age than before. I might even be older than you now."

"So where am I and what exactly happened to me?" Her memories of the last few days slowly percolated back into her consciousness. She began to realize that there were two identities, two names she knew herself by. Wendy the original one and Leanne, an identity given to her, by whom?

"You're back in Gravity Falls, or what's left of it. As for what happened to you, as far as I can tell, you were taken and brainwashed. You were made to think you're someone else, a woman called Leanne who could supposedly change her appearance. What is even worse is that you were programmed to kill both your Dipper and Pacifica, and unfortunately in my world," he stopped and struggled with his emotions, "your other self succeeded in killing Pacifica." Mason got up off the bed and walked across the room to the table, there he grabbed a tray of food and brought it to her. "Here, you must eat something; we'll need to go back soon so you need to get your strength back."

"My other self, what happened to her?" She heard of problems when people met themselves in other dimensions. "Is she still around?" Mason sighed deeply.

"You must understand that what I did, I did because I had no choice." Mason grabbed a chair and sat facing her. "Back then I didn't know what happened to her, to you and I wasn't able to help her. She died in my arms..." He trailed off.

"Is that what's going to happen to me, or can I change things now?" She was beginning to understand what he must be going through. He lost the two women he was closest to, and what about the others?

"You are now free to change things, to help _your_ Dipper defeat the 'phantom'. I found a way to break the hold on you. I don't know if you remember, but it's that liquid you drank."

"The 'phantom'?"

"I believe you call it the 'ghost', but it's the same person or thing and now you can help Dipper rather than try to kill him. You're no longer under mind control, you're free."

"Why are you doing this? I'm not from your world, your dimension, so why would you want to help us?" She didn't trust such a free gift, there was always a payment. She needed to be the interrogator, but that wasn't really her; who was she now?

"You don't trust me, I understand." He leaned back in the chair crossed his arms and prepared to tell his story. "I guess I couldn't do this without letting you know what happened to me. It's a long story but I'll make it really short. The simple thing is my 'Leanne' did all the things you did and behaved the same way and I trusted her. Then when we all finally faced the 'phantom', at a crucial moment in the battle she simply betrayed us and killed my Pacifica."

"I need to know what happened exactly, I need to know what to avoid and I need to know how to help Dipper win this fight." She knew that the more information she had the better her chance of survival and the better their chance of defeating the 'ghost'. So Mason went on to tell her the story, every moment and every confrontation. He told her of how they all perished, one by one the people he loved died. She could see it was hard for him to talk about it, especially to talk about losing Pacifica and then to be forced to kill Leanne/Wendy. The more he talked about it the more her heart went out to him and all the pain he suffered touched her deeply. This was someone who despite all his abilities could not save the people he loved. Mason was a man with a broken heart.

"I held her in my arms and watched the light go out of her eyes, but just before she died, I could see she was free of the 'phantom's' control." Those last words hung heavy in the air between them. "I couldn't stop the 'phantom' from destroying my life or the Earth, but I could at least do this one thing, I could travel the dimensions and find you. So I made a promise to myself to help you and now I have fulfilled that promise." He got up and walked over to a dresser and pulled out a bundle of clothes for her. "I have these for you, they should fit." He handed her the bundle. "I'll wait outside while you get ready." With that he left the cabin.

She sat there holding the clothes not quite sure what to do with them, while her mind debated through the confusion of her identity. Perhaps she could get back to being Wendy again, that is who she really was, but Leanne was also her. Memories of Wendy's childhood floated by and mixed together with Leanne's, ax practice mixed with TC training. Memories of Wendy's father mixed with memories of Leanne's parents. Were they even real? What was real? Could she trust her own mind to make that decision? She needed help to keep her reality in balance, to remember who she really was.

Her mind drifted to Mason's story and the damage that was done to him by his Leanne/Wendy. Could she cause so much suffering to a man's heart? No she could not and with that statement she knew where to find the help she needed. She got dressed and walked outside.

Mason stood at the end of a dock overlooking a lake; he held something in his hands and gently caressed it. He turned his head and looked at her as she approached.

"You're ready?"

"No, there is something I must do before we leave." She came up to him and looked up into his eyes; they were darker than Dippers. "I need to know something, did you love her?"

"Who?"

"Wendy." Taken aback, Mason looked at her for a long moment while his eyes searched her face, then he handed her the item he held. It was an old hat that she recognized immediately, and her eyes filled with tears.

"I miss her the most."


	8. Chapter 8: Boo

Three years earlier...

He walked through the hallways with his head bent low, hat pulled on tight and eyes fixed on the floor. This way he knew he could avoid them, at least most of them. Their cat-calls and taunts ground on his resolve and daily brought him to his breaking point; this was too much even for someone who went through Weirdmageddon. They all wanted his attention, all wanted to show him how cruel they could be, it was like a parade of torture as the screams of their victims echoed throughout the school.

He entered the classrooms and made his way to the furthest back corners and they all followed him in. They crawled along the floors or slithered on the ceilings, their cruel eyes looked at him with suggestions of future venomous attacks. Their spider-like legs stepped on desks and sometimes even on other students and the slime they left behind dripped from the ceiling and onto the desks. The only time he could get away from them was when he closed his eyes, but not for long, the teachers wanted him to pay attention to their lessons.

Their deformed bodies oozed with pus while they wrapped themselves around his friends, his teachers, his parents and even Mabel. They did their worst to her; they would crawl out of her mouth when she spoke and sat on her head when she walked about the house. No matter where he went they followed, his daily companions, his tortured demons, ever since he returned home from Gravity Falls two months ago. He lost all his friends, he lost Mabel. She didn't understand no matter how much he explained; he knew she tried but eventually even she turned away and found new friends to be with. Nothing he did stopped them from coming; there was no solution that he could think of that would make them go away. They weren't ghosts and they weren't zombies, they just were. They were there during the day and at night they haunted his dreams bringing back nightmares from Bill's sick mind.

He lived with them daily and struggled to keep his mind focused on the basic things like brushing his teeth. He wasn't always successful, sometimes he just forgot. He lived in the shadows of his room, with covered windows so he could not see them, only hear them; it was better but not always. Then one day hope came back...

"Dipper, there is a call for you." He heard his mom call to him from downstairs.

"Got it, mom" He picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Why did you call me, nerd?" A girl's voice asked from the other end.

"Who's this?"

"I ask the questions! So why did you call me?" He thought he recognized her voice.

"What are you talking about, you called me! Who is this?" Somebody was playing a game with him.

"No, I answered the phone and there you were on the line, nerd. You called me."

"Ok, this is ridiculous; you just called me on my house phone, my mom answered it." Click...

The line went dead. Dipper thought that maybe this was somehow a game the nightmares were playing, but they were not real so how could they talk to his mom? The phone rang again and someone else answered, but nobody called for him. Five minutes went by and suddenly his cell phone rang. Unknown caller.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Why are you calling me nerd, don't you have anything better to do?"

"Hold on a second do I know you, is this some kind of a joke?" Whose joke was this?

"Of course you know me, but why are you calling me?"

"For the last time I didn't call you!" Click...

Insane! What the hell did she want? Dipper started to think about the next time the phone rang, what should he say? Maybe he should admit to being the one who called? He'll try that.

The phone rang, Dipper checked the display but it was the same as before. Unknown caller.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Why are you doing this? Stop calling me!"

"Ok, I'm sorry but, you know, maybe I just want to talk." The girl was silent for a moment too long. "Hello, are you there?"

"Yes, I'm still here." He couldn't quit place the voice but there was something very familiar about it.

"Ok, good. So how are you?"

"OMG like I'm fine, why you need to ask!" Pacifica!

"Pacifica, is that you?" Again silence. Dipper was worried she had hung up again.

"Yes, it's me." She sounded unlike her usual self; he could tell something was off.

"Hey, great to hear from you! Uhm, how's Gravity Falls?" Suddenly Dipper felt tongue tied, but this was Pacifica and he should be ok talking to her.

"Dipper, I need to talk to you so can we skip the chit chat and just talk?" Pacifica sounded tired.

"Yeah, sure why don't we just talk. What do you need to talk about?"

"Uhm... I'm not doing so well and I don't know who to turn to, you're probably the only one I know who could understand this."

"What exactly do you think I could understand? More ghost problems?" Could Pacifica be going through something similar to himself?

"No, no ghosts but, well I don't know how to describe them, they're like these phantoms that no one else can see but me. Do I sound crazy to you?" There was a note of desperation in her voice that made Dipper want to reach out to her.

"Actually, Pacifica, I think I understand exactly what you are talking about. I'm sort of going through something similar here." His heart started to pound and his pulse was going through the roof. "I have been dealing with them for the past two months. They are these weird creatures that just appeared one day and never left! They slither along the ground or ceiling or walk on spider legs and nobody else can see them and they're revolting and and ..."

"Yes, yes that's it! They are like something Bill would dream up and they never leave, they just hang around me all day and night! What the hell are they? Can you help?" He realized that for the first time since school began there was hope he could stop this nightmare.

"I don't know if I can, Boo, but maybe us talking about them will help us deal with them." Dipper hoped that simply voicing their difficulties might be enough for them to overcome this.

"What did you just call me?" Pacifica sounded surprised.

"Wha... what do you mean what did I just called you?" Dipper started to sweat.

"You just called me 'Boo', like in a ghost kind of thing. Was that a joke? Did you just make a joke, nerd?" He sure could hear the amused sarcasm in her voice.

"No, I didn't just call you Boo."

"Yes you did, I clearly heard you call me Boo."

"No... no I didn't. Why would I call you Boo?" The phone began to slide out of his sweaty hand, he had to switch and wipe his hand on his jeans.

"I don't know why you would call me Boo, but you did! Now stop lying and admit it." He could tell she barely held back laughter and snickered in the background.

"I... I... I... well... I..."

"Ha ha ha, am I embarrassing you nerd?" Pacifica was in her element and he was the one who paid for it.

"No... no you're not! I don't get embarrassed; I only get very, very, very, very, very embarrassed!" Now they both burst out laughing, he even thought he heard her snort. They both needed this!

Their conversation went very well after that, they spoke for several hours about their nightmares and of ways to deal with them. Then they switched topics and talked simply about stuff. Pacifica told him about her family's dealings with the town and how everyone treated them badly; she mentioned her father's visits to the old mansion and about her mom's trips out of town. Dipper realized that Pacifica was lonely and with that he recognized his own loneliness. Having someone who understood what the other was going through was therapeutic. So he told her about Mabel and how they had drifted apart because she just couldn't understand what he was going through.

"It was hard to watch her turn away from me, I know she tried but it must have been too much for her. I think she just wanted to leave all those nightmares behind in Gravity Falls."

"Oh Dipper, I'm sorry. You two have been through so much together, I can't even imagine how hard it must be for you." Dipper was very surprised by her words.

"Pacifica..."

"Yes?"

"Thank you... Boo."

"You're welcome, nerd." By the time they hung up, they both knew they would call each other again the next day. They were hooked.

That night was the first night in two months that Dipper managed to sleep without any interruptions. For reasons he didn't understand, the nightmare phantoms left him alone and let him get a good night's rest. They were back the next morning, but their numbers were less and even when he watched them crawl along the floor, his good mood did not diminish.

Over the next few weeks, they called each other almost every day, their conversation topics varied from homework help to simply listening to music together. Eventually they switched to video and that's when Dipper saw how much the experience with the phantoms had changed her. Pacifica looked less regal and less made up than he had ever seen her before, this wasn't the Queen Bee he remembered but rather she was now the girl next door who he had fallen for. In a way, he preferred her new look.


	9. Chapter 9: Vengence

Mason held her in his arms as they stood, and waited for the others to come and find them; she rested her head on his chest and breathed in slowly. He delighted in their closeness and the familiarity of her scent, through all those years it was this closeness of her that he missed the most. His world was gone, but maybe, just maybe he could help Wendy retain hers, if only the others would accept his offer. Everything depended on this moment, on this one decision: would they agree to let him take revenge and kill the 'phantom'?

The Monastery's stone hallways echoed with the others' footsteps as they approached which made his heart to race and set his nerves on edge. He could feel Wendy fidget anxiously the closer they came; they were both literal strangers to the others, so why should they be trusted? He was from another dimension and Wendy only a short time ago was Leanne. Nervously he imagined multiple scenarios of the meeting and what they might ask and what his responses could be, but in the end it was all up to them.

Wendy untangled herself from their embrace and moved to stand beside him, but still held desperately onto his hand. This was it, would they accept them or not.

"We're here, Boo." Dipper's voice rang out as he entered through the arched doorway and stepped into the courtyard. Mason watched as Dipper reacted to their presence the instant he laid his eyes on them and stopped so abruptly that Pacifica walked straight into his back. Boo? Mason never called Pacifica Boo. Are they together?

"Hey, what's the...?" Pacifica exclaimed as she looked around Dipper, and then sucked in her breath when she saw them as they stood in the middle of the courtyard.

Dipper was poised with hands at the ready, eager to release his weapons. Mason himself had to fight the urge to do likewise. He wasn't sure if Dipper recognized him, but if it came to it he probably could take his younger self in battle, he hoped it would never come to that, but his experience would probably prevail in that fight. As long as they didn't touch of course.

"Who are you?" Dipper posed the question only to Mason, but he might as well have said it to both of them.

"Sup Dipper, this is you from another dimension, but he goes by the name of Mason. He's a friend." Wendy nervously blurted out the moment Dipper asked. "We have a lot to tell you guys about what happened to me and what will happen..."

"Dipper, do not come any closer to him!" Ford yelled as he pushed his way into the courtyard to stand between the two men. Mason could see the older man's terrified look as he took in the scene. "If this truly is you but from another dimension, then by all that is precious do not approach each other!" Ford stood with his arms outstretched to prevent them from coming any closer. "All of us and this entire dimension will be destroyed if you do."

"I know." Dipper and Mason responded in unison.

"Freaky." Pacifica commented from behind Dipper. "Wendy is that you?" She moved to stand beside Dipper and smiled hopefully at Wendy.

"No that's Leanne; she's the TC interrogator I told you about."

"Actually Dipper, it is me, Wendy. There is a lot we need to tell you guys about, a lot to tell you about the 'ghost'." Dipper's eyes darted over to look at Wendy; he scrutinized her for a moment and then returned his gaze to Mason. Ford too glanced at Wendy with interest.

Mason felt Dipper's distrust, it hung thick in the air between them as if at any moment Dipper expected Mason to lunge at him. Mason had to fight hard to control his impulse to take a defensive stand; he still hoped this would end well.

"Dipper, perhaps we should listen to them." Pacifica placed her hand on his arm. "Let's first hear their story before we take any action, ok?" Dipper looked at her and nodded. This surprised Mason; his Pacifica was not exactly the voice of reason, brave yes, but not one to use common sense.

They all agreed to sit down in the grass and discuss what they knew while Ford insisted the two men would stay as far from each other as possible. He even sat roughly between them to make sure neither came any closer to the other. Mason remembered what he read in the journal, he would have loved to test his skill against a younger version of himself, but that was impossible. As they all sat in the grass, the others removed their backpacks and took out containers of food and drink. Wendy and Pacifica greeted each other warmly and gladly resumed an old conversation. The whole meeting had the atmosphere of a family picnic that might have been fun except for the dark cloud that hung over them. Mason wondered if this was the beginning of their victory or the first steps on the road to their doom. Once they all settled down, Wendy started to tell her story.

She decided to start with the Monastery and the trauma of almost freezing to death and then getting lost in the maze.

"You know Dipper I still can't feel the tips of my ears." She said with a sarcastic smile.

She went on to tell them about Mason's rescue of her from this very courtyard and how he administered the serum that brought her back. Next she told them about her abduction and described all that she remembered from both her real life and the fake life the 'ghost' implanted in her mind. She explained that she could remember how her father raised them all alone after her mother's death and she also recalled the life that Leanne led with her parents on future Earth and of how she joined the TC.

"It's all such a jumble of memories and keeping it together is a full time job, it's hard to know what is real and what isn't." When Pacifica questioned her on this, Wendy attempted to explain how difficult it was to hold onto reality especially when her mind would switch between the two identities from time to time. That's when Wendy sneaked a look up at Mason with that secret smile and he immediately knew that he played a deciding role in her life from now on. Mason noticed another difference between the two dimensions in the way Pacifica comforted Wendy. In his dimension Wendy and Pacifica never became close; they fought the 'phantom' together with the others but never became real friends, whereas here, they looked to be very good and close friends. In his dimension it was Mable and Pacifica that became close since they had so much more in common with each other.

When Wendy reached the part of the 'phantom's' assassination programming, Mason saw that both Dipper and Pacifica were visibly shaken. He knew then that they both trusted her already and all that was left was for them to extend that trust to him.

"Dipper, Ford, I sort of need to apologize to you two." Wendy faced them.

"For what, you were under the 'ghost's' control?" Dipper said.

"Well, back at the Med-centre when Gruff came to arrest the two of us; that was because of what I'd done."

"I know." Ford responded, catching both Dipper and Wendy by surprise.

"You knew, how?" Wendy looked curious.

"Yeah, how?" Dipper intoned.

"Despite all those tentacles, I noticed your communicator was set to transmit and I assumed you were in contact with the TC."

"Yeah sorry, that was all before I knew anything about the 'ghost'."

"Why didn't you warn me?" Dipper asked Ford.

"If I did, would you have been as candid with Leanne as you were? If not then she would have seen through you and we would have lost an ally, we would have lost Wendy." Ford explained as Dipper looked sheepish. "I also left as soon as I could because I figured the TC was coming to arrest us, and as you know I needed to get Pacifica out of Gravity Falls. I sent you the message to run and it helped, right?" Mason listened to them and came to understand how much more Dipper still had left to learn. Mason could tell that Dipper had a lot of experience under his belt, but there was still a feeling that Dipper's real lessons hadn't yet begun.

Finally it came time for Mason to speak and he realized that he didn't really know where to begin. There was so much to tell, everything from the battles they had to their final defeat at the hands of the 'phantom'.

"I honestly don't know where to start, there is so much to talk about."

"Perhaps you could tell us about where the 'ghost' is hiding?" Ford suggested.

"Yes I could, but first I think there is something much more important I need to tell you all." He decided to pose his ultimatum first. "I need you all to know that the main reason I came here and the reason I would join and help you in pursuing the 'phantom' is so that I can kill him or it or whatever. For me this is about vengeance, plain and simple." Wendy placed a hand on his. "He destroyed my life and the lives of so many I loved, that death is the only way to stop him and I want to be the one to kill him. No capture, no trial, no prison, simply put he deserves death. If you want me to join you, if you want me to help you find him, you must let me be the one to end him, that's the price for my help, as savage as it is. So decide if this is something you're willing to go along with." With that he got up and walked away from the group to stand in front of a large arched window to the outside.

He watched as the storm raged on and could feel the temperature outside drop to impossible lows. Mason barely held it together; this group of people afforded him the best opportunity to confront the 'phantom' and after so many years this idea played havoc with his feelings. When Wendy's arms found him shortly after and as she pressed herself against his back, he welcomed the distraction.

"Don't you want to talk it over with them?" Mason asked.

"No, this is their mission; they should be the ones to decide."

"But it involves you too; you are after all from their dimension, from their world."

"Yes, but not for much longer." He turned around to look at her and found that just like the other, she was full of surprises. Her eyes sparkled with aroused excitement while her thick red hair fell all about her shoulders and her lips curled up in a mischievous smile; she was just as beautiful as he remembered. He allowed himself to feel love again and reached up to softly caress her cheek with his tips of his fingers, that's when she reached up on her tippy-toes and simply kissed him. He responded in kind.

The others debated for a little while, Mason could not hear what was being said but he could see that Dipper was the one who protested the most. If their places were reversed he wouldn't trust himself either, for as far as Dipper knew it, Mason was the 'phantom'. That started him off on a thought, what if the others were under the 'phantoms' control, what if he somehow got to them and at this very moment manipulated them. Is there a way to tell? No, no, stop! If he went down this line of thought he would never trust anyone ever again unless they drank the serum. But what if...

"Ok, I think we have reached a decision." Ford announced loudly. Mason and Wendy walked back to the picnic and joined them on the grass. Dipper refused to meet his gaze but both Ford and Pacifica looked to be on his side. "In short we accept what you propose. I agree that it is savage but your knowledge of the 'ghost' is indispensible, so we welcome you. Now let us hear what you know."

So Mason spoke about his experiences with the 'phantom' and the battles they fought against it. He took his time as he carefully depicted the deaths of every one he knew and loved, in hopes they could be prevented. Wendy and Pacifica held hands while Ford and Dipper looked to be deep in thought. When he finally finished this sad chapter, he took a short break to collect his thoughts and noticed that Dipper had begun to look at him differently.

"So eventually you found where the 'ghost' was hiding, correct?" Ford asked when they sat back down to the discussion.

"Yes, it was in Gravity Falls, inside the remnants of the old spaceship, that's where our final battle took place."

"So that explains why Fiddleford was so diligently exploring the ship when I followed him." Pacifica commented.

"Yes, in time Fiddleford managed to restart the ship and powered up the dimensional doors."

"Could those doors be the reason for all those uncontrolled portals?" Dipper asked.

"Perhaps, but I never found out for certain." Mason responded.

"No, no, that can't be. Those doors are constrained and lead to specific dimensions, where as uncontrolled portals do not have any constraints at the source. I believe what we experienced is more in line with the attempts by someone to create a 'universal portal'; something that can access dimensions without limits and open dimensional travel to the public. Such a singular portal could potentially lead to all dimensions including the ability to time travel! But to create one would take a great deal of power and a lot of experimentation." Ford explained. "I have only seen one such portal during my travels and it required its own matter-antimatter fusion reactor to power it."

"Well, I didn't see anything like that when we faced the 'phantom', granted the ship was big, but even so after thirty million years, Ford do you think there would be enough power left in the ship's reactor to create a Universal Portal?"

"No, not after so much time, I don't believe so."

"So the 'ghost's' main base must be somewhere else?!" Dipper jumped to the obvious conclusion.

"Perhaps you're right..." Ford leaned back and started to scratch his beard, then he said almost only to himself, "...and does that mean that he is trying to build his own Universal Portal, but why and where could it be located?" Ford kept scratching his beard while he mumbled under his breath, then he said out loud, "Mason please continue with your tale, maybe there are some clues in it we could pick up on."

"Yes, very well." He quickly gathered his thoughts. "Ok, so by the time we figured out that the 'phantom' was in the old spaceship, there was only the three of us left to face him and when we attempted to approach the ship his creatures attacked before even got close." Mason had to concentrate hard to recall this unpleasant memory. "With some heavy fighting, we finally broke through and entered the ship through a cave that opened up in its side. Once in, we headed for the control room and found the 'phantom' there, waiting, and that's when I made the worst mistake of my life. Stupidly thinking I could protect them, I sent both Leanne and Pacifica to look for Fiddleford in the engine room." He started to have a physical reaction to the memory and had to stop for a moment. Wendy placed a hand on his forearm and helped him to regain his composure.

"You didn't know what Leanne was about do to, don't blame yourself for it," she said.

"Easier said than done." He sighed. "Anyways, that's when the 'phantom' lit a fire to prevent me from reaching the weather controls; he managed to trap me and I almost burned my hands attempting to get out. You see I tried to stop his plans with the internal weather controls, I could have destroyed everything with a well placed lightning bolt." Ford nodded with approval as Mason took in a deep breath and continued. "When he had me trapped he became chatty and told me what Leanne was about to do to Pacifica and all I did was to scream at him as if I could reason with his madness. It was pointless." He could see in his mind's eye the shadowy figure laughing at him. "Not long after that, Leanne arrived covered in blood and carrying a broken knife and a strange key... it was Pacifica's blood. I could see she wasn't herself, there was a vacancy in her eyes and I realized the 'phantom' was controlling her." Mason looked at Wendy and brushed an errant strand of red hair from her face; she smiled at him and took his hand. He knew he was stalling. "She gave the key to the 'phantom' that unlocked a hidden compartment and he pulled out a battle ax which he handed to her, almost as if he was expecting all of this to happen. As soon as she took it from him, he happily informed us that he wanted us to fight to the death while he watched. I almost become physically sick at hearing this and hoped the fire would keep Leanne away from me. Well, that's when he put the fire out with the weather controls and a deluge, then stepped back to watch us fight. I tried, but I couldn't get around Leanne to kill him and had to eventually face her, she was good, very good. In the end he didn't stick around to watch, during the fight he left and I had to... I couldn't stop her... she was relentless... her attacks just kept coming at me." Mason's anxiety level was already high, but at this nightmarish point it spiked. The others listened in complete silence. "Well... she... ahm, died in my arms." He finished, closed his eyes and let the tears flow. He felt Wendy wrap her arms around him and surrendered to her embrace.

Mason and Wendy remained seated and in each others' arms while the others walked away to give them some privacy. In all the years after those events, Mason kept himself busy hunting through the dimensions, searching for just the right one where what happened to him could still be prevented. Therefore this was the first time he told this tale in its entirety and as he heard it out loud for himself, the pain of it came to him with a vengeance. His shoulders shook uncontrollably and he bit his lips so hard he tasted blood. Wendy held on to him and whispered softly as she helped him navigate through the pain. Eventually it all passed and he wiped his eyes dry as he gathered his composure; those events might be over but the trauma remained and in his heart it grew a hunger for revenge.


	10. Chapter 10: Into The Woods

Dipper's March Break in Gravity Falls:

He arrived at the Mystery Shack two days earlier than what he told Pacifica. The town was just digging itself out from under a winter's blizzard and its many weird denizens were out in force on a hunt for the 'Rainbow Yeti'. The creature was recently 'discovered' by Soos and was fabled to lead a person to unimaginable riches stashed away in its secret underground ice cave. Soos of course had the monopoly on maps, Yeti whistles, rainbow-trackers and other paraphernalia that desperate treasure hunters needed to find the creature. So when Dipper arrived, almost nobody noticed him with the Mystery Shack chock full of Yeti seekers. He looked around and admired how well Soos and Melody ran the business. Grunkle Stan would be proud.

He hoped the two extra days would give him just enough time to plan out his first real meeting with Pacifica. Everything had to be perfect, from where they would meet to when it would happen. He planned out his outfit, shirt and pants, the jacket, the boots and even the black leather gloves that he bought especially for this occasion. No child's mitts. He made a list for everything, conversation topics, when to hold her hand and when to look into her eyes, every step on the way to her heart.

As the afternoon progressed, the Shack finally emptied and up in the attic bedroom as the low afternoon sun shone through the stained-glass window, he finally had time to talk to Soos. He stood and examined himself in the mirror, now that he was thirteen he needed to be...

"Oh who am I kidding, she already knows enough about me to see right through all this!" Dipper crumpled the list and looked at himself in the mirror all doled up. He waited for Soos to comment.

"Dude, you want to make a good impression, I understand, but you need to be you, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Dipper said as he took off the layers of fashionable clothing.

"She likes you for who you are, right?" Melody chimed in from the doorway. "You two already met and at least in the end you had a good time, so be who you are because that's whom she's expecting." She was absolutely right; he knew Pacifica liked him not because of his clothing but because of his, well nerd-ness.

"We've already spent months talking to each other over the phone and on the computer, "he explained to Melody. "So why am I still nervous about meeting her in person?"

"Because she is important to you, so don't ruin it by pretending to be someone you're not." Melody explained the obvious.

Dipper felt the need to go outside for a walk. "I need to clear my mind, maybe a short walk will help."

"That is a good idea, Dude."

"Don't forget your hat and mitts; it's gotten very cold out there today." Melody handed them to him; perhaps he could still be a kid after all.

"Oh and Dude, be careful of the Sasquatch, he's been seen going through people's garbage again. This winter's been hard on the hairy guy." Soos commented as Dipper slipped out through the front door and into the frozen woods of Gravity Falls. It had been over six months since he last ventured into the mystifying forest that surrounded the Mystery Shack, but he hoped that he still remembered his way.

The trees looked heavy with fresh snow from the blizzard and the pure white blanket thickly covered all traces of any recognizable features. But Dipper trusted in his ability to navigate the woods, after all he did spend most of the summer exploring them in detail.

He walked out into the deep snow and headed in the direction of the Bunker, not because he was curious about it but because he simply needed a direction. Soon his thoughts focused mainly on Pacifica and he stopped paying attention to where he was headed. He just walked through the woods while his mind kept track of his progress by instinct.

The snow clung to his boots and jeans as he cleared a path through the drifts between the trees. There was nothing but silence all around him as the white stuff absorbed all sound. By now the hallucinations all but vanished and only a scant remnant bothered him from time to time; it was the same case with Pacifica. He was happy to no longer consider himself insane, at least not completely. There was still the problem of his delusion in thinking that a beautiful girl like Pacifica had a crush on him, but that would probably disappear when they met on Monday.

"STOP!" Dipper's musings were suddenly interrupted and he froze mid stride in the middle of a small clearing. "I'll shoot if you don't!" He quickly looked about him to find the source of the order. Directly in front of him a shadow glided rapidly through the forest, it headed straight for him at a speed his eyes could barely keep up. "I mean it, stop!" The last command was followed by a burst of white light that cut through the trees just to his right. Dipper dove to his left and landed in a shallow snow filled ditch. The shadowy creature kept up its pace and still headed straight for him. Dipper tried to scramble away but just as it was about to pass, the creature stopped and its dark pink eyes focused on Dipper. Dipper's blood froze as he watched the Shapeshifter reduce its height and transform itself into an exact duplicate of him.

"Nice to see you again Dipper, hope you don't mind if I borrow your shape for a while." A dark smile formed on the Shapeshifter's eerily familiar face as it jumped and landed in the ditch right next to Dipper, as it sat beside him and appeared to relax. Dipper was transfixed and couldn't take his eyes off of the creature; all the nightmares he had following his first encounter came back and replayed themselves in his mind.

"You..." He managed to squeak out a second before a sudden crash made him look away.

"Hold it right there... both of you?" A young man with thinning hair stumbled out from the underbrush and into their clearing. Dipper immediately recognized a time traveler's uniform, and a pistol he had last seen in the future was now leveled at the two of them. "Who are you and... which one of you is the Shapeshifter?" That's when Dipper remembered the creature next to him.

"It's him, he's the Shapeshifter, shoot him!" Dipper watched as the creature pointed in his direction and the young man aimed his pistol at him. "What are you waiting for, kill him!"

"You made me think Wendy was dead!" Dipper finally found his voice.

"What?" His words caught the creature of guard and forced it to stumble in an attempt to counter him.

"I thought she died and I cried over you, do you realize how much trauma that caused me?!"

"What... wha... I did what?" The Shapeshifter stuttered as it attempted to find the right words to cover its tracks, but Dipper had none of that. He ignored the time-traveler and focused his anger on the creature.

"I should have killed you after we froze you down there. You are pure evil!" He wanted to scream at it, he wanted to hit it, but most of all he wanted to kill it. His anger boiled within him as he recalled the horror of that underground encounter.

"Mr. Grafton, I hope you have figured out by now which one of the two boys is our mark?" A tall blond haired woman time-traveler with a hard Scandinavian accent walked out of the forest and slowly made her way towards them to stand beside Grafton. "Have you been observing their behaviour and speech patterns? It is the one thing that gives them away, they never learned to completely assume their prey's personality."

"I think it's the one on the right, no wait, it's the one on the left." Dipper watched their interaction and quickly formulated a plan. He used Grafton's confusion to pull his legs under himself and sprang into the air and towards Grafton. As he barrelled down on the young man, he spun in the air at the last second and slammed into the bewildered time-traveler with all the weight of his body. As the two of them tumbled into the snow, Dipper grabbed for the pistol and yanked it out of the other's hand; he then simultaneously pointed and fired in the direction of the Shapeshifter. The creature reacted much faster than Dipper anticipated and managed to get to its feet during the struggle for the pistol, it had begun to change and was halfway between shapes when the pistol fired. The beam of white light only singed some black feathers on the creatures left shoulder but otherwise did not harm it. Dipper pulled the trigger again. Nothing happened. The pistol needed time to recharge and in that instant the creature finished its transformation and took flight. The new form of a large black bird made its way between the trees and to freedom. Dipper quickly got up off of Grafton and watched angrily as the bird climbed higher into the sky, he almost threw the pistol at it but instead decided to run after it. That's when a beam of brilliant blue light exploded from behind Dipper and hit the bird squarely in the centre. The black bird was knocked out of the sky and careened down to the ground.

"That should do it." As the Shapeshifter fell just behind a small ridge and was hidden by some dense foliage, Dipper continued his pursuit but was now hampered by a thick grove of trees.

"Now young man I suggest you stop and let us take care of the Shapeshifter in due course." A stern voice called out after him and Dipper came to a halt in a snow bank. "We'll go and collect him shortly; he's only been stunned, but first let's see who we have here." Dipper turned around and faced the two time-travelers.

Grafton looked dejected as if someone had pissed in his cornflakes, probably because the larger youth was so easily disarmed by Dipper. When his pulse slowed and the adrenalin wore off, Dipper realized what he had done.

"Now Mr. Grafton, would you please go and collect your pistol from our would-be assassin." The woman kept a steely gaze on Dipper. Her long blond hair was tightly bound in the back, but a lone strand broke loose and hung across one eye. It gave her a menacing pirate-like look.

"Yes Master Paattyy." Grafton scrambled to his feet and trudged through the snow over to Dipper.

"I am disappointed with you Michael; this is the second time today you managed to miss an opportunity to shine. First you allowed the Shapeshifter to escape from the bunker and then you lost control of a tense situation while losing your pistol in the process." The woman's voice reminded Dipper of a disapproving school teacher; perhaps this was some kind of a lesson gone wrong. Worst of all Dipper realized that it was them who released the creature. "I will be including this incident in your official review next week so try not to mess things up any further."

"Yes Master." Michael finally reached Dipper and bent down to grab the pistol out of his hand, but in that moment rather than hand back the weapon, Dipper instead raised the pistol and pointed it at Michael's head. As the barrel rested against his forehead a look of complete surprise followed by one of utter defeat crossed Michael's face and his shoulders slumped in surrender.

"You released him from the cryonics tube? Why?" Dipper looked back at Master Paattyy and tried to match her stare. "Don't you realize how dangerous he is? We kept him there for the protection of the whole town!"

"Yes, we are the ones who released him and yes I know how dangerous he is. That is why we are here to transport him back to his dimension." Her voice was the epitome of controlled fury and Dipper could see her hand inch slowly towards her holstered weapon, so in response he positioned himself just behind Michael. If there was anything he learned from their battle with Bill, it was that you need to always have protection between you and your enemy. "Wait, how did you know where he was kept?" A look of curious surprise flashed across her face. "What is your name boy?"

"Dipper, Dipper Pines." Master Paattyy exhibited utter shocked at his name.

"You are Dipper Pines? The Dipper Pines, as in Ford's apprentice Dipper Pines?"

"I don't know anything about being his apprentice, but Ford is my great uncle. How do you know of him?" The woman sighed and was about to speak but changed her mind and instead looked to be deep in thought.

"Master Aika Paattyy works with him at the TC," Michael whispered and Dipper was even more confused than before.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot tell you any more than I already have and as a matter of fact it will be necessary for me to wipe your memory clear of this whole incident. I cannot allow the future to be jeopardized by you knowing anything about us."

"You will do what? No never, we destroyed the memory gun, how could you have anything like it? McGucket promised to never make another one!" Dipper could feel his panic rise, and at that moment Michael seized the opportunity and grabbed for the pistol. Dipper managed to turn and side step out of Michael's reach but as he did so, he slipped and fell into the deep snow and lost sight of the others. Then as he struggled to get up the next words that came from Master Aika Paattyy chilled his blood.

"I'm sorry, but I have to do this."

"Dipper, is that you?" Silhouetted against the blue sky and directly above him hovered the face of a young girl. Her short blond hair tossed gently by the cold wind created a halo around her face and Dipper enamoured by her beauty lay in the cold snow with a smirk on his lips. It took him several moments before he realized that he was down on the frozen ground. 'I'm lying down, why?'

"Dipper, are you ok?" Pacifica looked amused by the expression on Dipper's face.

"Pacifica? What... what are you doing here?" Dipper sat up in the snow and looked around, he had no memory of falling down. "What happened? How did you find me?" He rubbed the back of his head and felt a painful freshly made bump. "Ouch."

"I was walking with my father but we got separated and then I heard a commotion and came to see what it was and found you just lying here." Pacifica looked curiously embarrassed while she explained breathlessly. "You must have hit your head on that log. Are you going to be ok?" She changed the topic and came around the back to examine his head. He let out a hiss as she gently touched the nasty bump. "Oh, sorry. I think you best have that looked at."

"I will, but it's probably just nothing." She came around to face him and stood there with her hands on her hips.

"I thought you said you weren't coming until Monday?" He looked up into those beautiful yet fierce blue eyes and debated whether to tell her the truth or come up with an elaborate excuse. 'Nah that would be stupid!' She finally sat down beside him in the snow; her thick light blue snow pants looked much warmer than his jeans. "So are you going to tell me what you are doing here two days too early?"

"Yeah, about that, I thought I'd come early and... and... prepare myself to meet you." He decided to tell her the truth but the words sounded foolish the minute they came out.

"Prepare yourself? Dipper, were you nervous about seeing me?" Pacifica gave him a mock shocked look and a beautiful smile.

"Ahm, kind of..." He suddenly felt embarrassed and couldn't look her in the eyes. His palms became all sweaty and he felt hot all over his face.

"You big nerd, no wonder I can't stop thinking about you." She laughed and then realized what she actually said. "Wait, did I just say that?" He looked at her and she quickly tried to hide in her jacket's fur lined hood but he still managed to catch a glimpse of her flushed with embarrassment face. Well, at least he wasn't the only one.

"So you can't stop thinking about me, hmm?" He knew he had her just like she had him that first time on the phone.

"I didn't say that... well I did... but I didn't mean it... well maybe I did, but... but... but... I..." Pacifica stuttered and tried to sink even deeper into the hood, but there was only so much fur to hide in. Dipper turned to face her and watched with amusement as she tried to disappear into that hood.

"Boo, were you nervous about meeting me?"

"Of course not! It's not like I care or anything." He could hear the giggle in her muffled voice and smiled at it himself.

"Ok, then come out."

"Nope, nope, nope."

His reached out and took her left hand in his and moved it away from the hood. While with the other he started to gently pull the hood back. His hand shook and rivulets of sweat ran down his back. He remembered how he felt the last time they were this close and realized how much he missed that feeling.

"No, no, Dipper stop..." She protested and tried to pull away, but relented when their eyes met. He slowly pulled her hood off. Bashful and self-conscious, she looked so beautiful that Dipper forgot how nervous he felt and his only thought was to kiss her, and kiss her he did. At first it was just a light and delicate kiss, but when she reached up and pulled him towards her, Dipper could have sworn that a spark of electricity passed between them as their lips met.


	11. Chapter 11: Gravity Falls

The fog rolled through Gravity Falls on a chilly autumn morning as they traversed the empty streets and turned down the gravel road leading towards the Mystery Shack.

As the sun rose over the mountains, its fingers of light reached into the woods and poked between the forest's giant redwoods casting extraordinary shadows. The fog was too thick to be burned away and as they hurried along, their breath joined that thick morning fog. The only evidence of their passing was the muted crunch of dead leaves and gravel under their feet.

To Dipper, Gravity Falls was the only place in the multi-verse where he felt most at home but this time he walked cautiously with eyes peeled and examined every shadow. Empty storefronts emerged out of the fog, abandoned bicycles and cars littered the streets, and the town was given over to the will of nature. There was a sense of something sinister and patient that awaited them, like a spider just out of sight at the edge of its web. The streets might have been deserted but he was glad to leave the town behind and head closer to the safety of the Mystery Shack.

The sun was still too weak to dispel the upcoming winter's bite, so Dipper held Pacifica close and wrapped his great coat around them both. The plan was to stop off at the Mystery Shack, find out any new information about the town and then head out into the forest and the spaceship. They decided to strike first and hopped to catch the phantom by surprise.

"Tell me again why we're here?" Pacifica asked him. "Haven't we already established that the phantom's base is not in the spaceship?" Earlier she reminded everyone of her failed last venture into the depths of that great ship. "Do we really have to go back there?" Her voice shook a bit.

"Yes Boo we do, because the ship is a focal point in all the dimensions and we need to establish the why. Also if we find Fiddleford perhaps we could question him as well." The sound of their voices was absorbed by the fog, and in truth the whole forest was unusually quiet.

"Well, I don't like this plan; I have a bad feeling about it." Pacifica shivered and Dipper pulled her even closer to him. She leaned into him and wrapped her arms tighter. He wasn't thrilled with the plan either, there were too many uncertainties, but getting to Fiddleford would be a great first step and Mason insisted on the first strike idea. This mystery they needed to solve had acquired a life of its own and Dipper could see a great battle looming in the not too distant future.

"All this feels wrong; I had never seen the town so empty, it was really eerie." Pacifica again spoke and commented on the obvious absence of any sign of human life. Back in the town there had been dogs that barked in the distance and cats that chased each other, even a moose emerged out of the fog and walked passed them; but no humans.

"Hey, who the hell is that?!" Mason had stopped and called back to the others from the front of their procession. When they all reached him they noticed a figure of a man materialize out of the fog and glide towards them down the middle of the road. "Is he from this town, does anybody recognize him?"

Wendy took a couple of steps forward and craned her neck for a better look, but after a moment shook her head. "Nope, he's not from around here, but he does look strangely familiar."

Dipper looked closer; the figure approached with an unnatural gait: the top of his body stayed still while his legs took precise confident steps. The familiarity was uncanny and he searched his memory for the identity of this creature, then it suddenly struck him. "He's from the TC..." a momentary shock ran through him, "...and he's not human."

"Wait a minute is that the receptionist from the Great Hall?" Ford asked.

"It is." Dipper's last interaction with him ended strangely.

"Then what in all of space and time is he doing here?" Good question, Dipper thought.

The young man approached them at a comfortable pace with an ominous sneer on his lips that put Dipper on alert. The man's visage was pale with a strong chin and high cheekbones and was topped with a bleach blond mop of curly hair. The eyes looked out at them with self-assurance and an ounce of spite, a hunter converging on the kill. The man wore a long black coat that wrapped itself around him and Dipper wondered what weapons it hid. As if on cue a cold breeze blew and disturbed the fog then it lifted high the tails of the man's coat. Nothing. The scene created an illusion of an otherworldly visitor coming at them with wings raised behind him; a dark angel of sorts.

He stopped a short distance away and stood motionless while his dark eyes roved from person to person and his coat tails flapped behind him.

"Stay behind me Boo." Dipper turned and instructed Pacifica, and that's when they heard it: the soft ringing of a bell. Dipper's mind attempted to grasp where he had heard that bell before while he watched as Pacifica suddenly pushed herself away from him. Her face had a look of perfect submission as she turned away and quickly made her way to the young man.

"Pacifica stop!" Dipper called after her and proceeded to follow. His mind franticly searched for words to stop her as his memory recalled the bell her father used on her. "What are you doing? You're free, you don't have to obey it!"

"Oh but she does, Master Pines. Our darling Pacifica is not free at all and is doing exactly what she is ordered to do." That voice again, pleasant and creepy. "Her instruction was quite clear and she has performed it splendidly, she has brought you all to us." The young man cast a glance at Mason. Dipper pushed past Ford and continued to follow Pacifica. Us? Who is 'us'? He was grabbed by both Ford and Wendy and pulled back into the protection of the group. He wanted to run after her but Ford held on tight.

"Who are you?" Dipper addressed the young man.

"I am a servant of the most gracious Lord Vilis Inpuratus, Emperor of the Multi-Verse," the young man answered with a slight bow, "and I am here to collect my Lord's prized possession." he cast a leer at Pacifica as she came to stand at his left side.

"She is no one's possession!" Dipper growled as his mind filled with hatred and he broke free from Ford's grasp. He released his blades and rushed the servant. Instead of reacting to Dipper's attack, the young man tilted his head and gave Dipper a broad white toothy sarcastic smile while he placed an arm around Pacifica. Dipper raised the blades in the air and crossed the distance in a second, and with all of his momentum swung the swords down on the young man's head. The steel sung as it sliced through the empty air and came to a stop with a sick metallic scrape as Dipper buried the weapons in the gravel road.

"NO!" Gravel burst in all directions as he swung his swords around and franticly attempted to locate Pacifica and the servant, then tripped and dropped to his knees. "NOOO!"

Pacifica was gone and so the others gathered around him while the last of the morning fog was finally burned away by the bright yellow sun and the Mystery Shack came into view.

Dipper sat cross-legged on the floor with his back against the wall in the corner beside the vending machine. His blades lay naked across his lap as he stared absently at the wooden floor.

"You think he'll be ok?" Wendy whispered to Ford.

"You know, I'm not sure, I've never seen him like this." Ford had always known Dipper to bounce back from the most difficult of missions, but this was different. Something changed, something broke. He took a couple of steps towards him but turned and instead went behind the counter to grab a drink.

"What did that man mean by saying that Pacifica brought us all here? Is the phantom expecting us; did he set a trap for us?" Wendy's voice was full of worry and doubt as she leaned on the old counter.

"I don't know, but perhaps this was a mistake; I think we should leave and go back to the Monastery." Ford rubbed his beard and thought hard about what just happened. His mind swam with so many possibilities that it was hard to concentrate on the present. "I should have realized that the phantom... no wait that man called him Emperor, didn't he?"

"His full name is Lord Vilis Inpuratus, Emperor of the Multi-Verse." Mason answered as he walked back into the room and approached Dipper. He stood in front of him and scrutinized his younger self for a moment.

"You know his name then why didn't you tell us?" The realization that somewhere in his story, Mason might have lied to them or left something out on purpose downed on Ford with a sickening feeling.

"I do know that name, but it's not what you might think it is." Mason crouched in front of Dipper and studied him some more. Dipper continued to stare at the wooden floor oblivious to Mason's inspection.

"Please explain." Ford took a long pull of his drink and thought about how different Mason's world was from theirs.

"The name Lord Vilis Inpuratus comes from a very popular science-fiction movie series in my dimension. It's about a young man who under the tutelage of an evil master turns evil himself and attempts to take over the galaxy." Mason waved his hand in front of Dipper's face to no affect. "He is eventually defeated by his son." Mason continued to stare at Dipper and then suddenly rose and called out, "Yo Dipper, hey Dipshit!"

Dipper reacted faster than any of the three anticipated. His blades crossed at Mason's neck and the look in his eyes was murder. The pure hatred in them surprised Ford, he saw a kind of darkness there he hadn't seen before. Ford rushed over and attempted to move him back without success.

"Dipper don't...!" Wendy called out.

"You do not call me that, ever..." Dipper's voice was a low and guttural growl.

"Ok, ok I won't! I was just trying to get your attention. We need you here with us, in the present. This mission needs to continue, now more than ever." Mason stepped back from Dipper and bumped into a display case. Dipper followed blades up.

"Why did that bell work on her? What are you not telling us?!" Dipper ran a blade tip across Mason's right cheek and rested it under his eye.

"I don't know why..." His voice shook as the blade pressed into his skin. Ford thought he heard a false note in Mason's answer.

"You're lying!" Dipper pressed the blade and drew blood. "You've seen this before, you know who the phantom is, you know what is going to happen, and you knew this was a trap!" His voice reverberated throughout the Mystery Shack.

"I swear I don't...!" Mason raised his hands in protest.

"Dipper please, don't do this..." Wendy implored.

"Don't you see? He's been lying to us about all this! That creature out there lied, it wasn't Pacifica that brought us here, it was him." He slid the blade further and cut Mason more. "He knew the phantom was waiting here for us but all he cares about is his revenge!" Ford looked at Mason and saw sweat glisten on his forehead.

"Is this true; were you aware that the phantom was already in Gravity Falls waiting for us?" Ford pressed.

Mason's eyes darted between all three of them.

"Yes." Mason sighed. "I knew the phantom was here and I steered you all to follow me." It became clear to Ford that Mason's need for revenge was more of a problem than he anticipated.

"You lied to us, to me?" Wendy came closer and glared and him. "Why?" With Wendy beside him Dipper lowered his blades and observed their interaction.

"I... I... I..." Mason ran out of words. Wendy approached closer and with one swift move slapped him across the bleeding cheek. Some of his blood hit the wall. She turned and stormed out of the Shack, Mason attempted to follow but Dipper's blade stopped him.

"Now, how about we have a long conversation about all the things you omitted to tell us." Ford grabbed Mason by his left arm and manhandled him to a stool beside the counter.


	12. Chapter 12: Traitor

That dark long hair hung limp across his lowered face, a sheath to cover his mistakes. Flanked by two of the best warriors in this dimension, Mason still maintained a semblance of a wild animal. Now cornered, now desperate.

"I have seen this before, several times." His breathing was slow, controlled and his voice raspy. "The phantom collects Dippers, or at least he collects those that fit the mold." Mason stopped and touched his sliced cheek. The blood, now dried had run through his dark beard to stain his shirt and jacket. He didn't show any intention of wanting to continue.

"Do not stop." Ford had no patience for games. "You have lost our trust and I tell you the truth when I say that we will stop at nothing to solve this mystery." There was a slow metallic scrape as Ford unsheathed one of his own blades. Mason flinched at the sound. The threat worked.

"Look all I want is my revenge, that's all! This mystery is none of my concern, I don't care who he is as long as I can kill him." He shook his head and strands of hair parted long enough for Dipper to connect. An angry mirror looked back.

"Pacifica was taken because of you," it was difficult to keep his voice steady, "so solving this mystery better become your concern or I swear I'll make it so." He poked Mason's shoulder with a blade. Mason swatted it away, a deadly mosquito.

"Ok, ok. Those other Dippers, well they were all taken by that servant, he even took... me." Dipper and Ford exchanged looks. "They always came in pairs and they were always searching for the same thing, a need to solve the mystery of the phantom's identity." Mason sighed deeply. "I've watched too many of them come and die, the phantom needs to be stopped. He needs to die!"

"All the other Dippers were killed?" Ford asked.

"No, just their companions their Wendys, Pacificas, and Mabels. It was them that the phantom's minions overwhelmed while the Dippers were whisked away by the servant. I've watched Soos die so many times that I know now exactly what it takes to kill him." Mason fidgeted on the stool. "I don't want to know that. I never wanted to know that..." His voice broke.

They were silent for a moment. Ford sheathed his blade and grabbed his drink. Dipper walked up to the side window and looked out at the woods, lost in thought. The sun had risen well above the mountains now and the pristine sky promised a beautiful fall day. He thought of all the people the phantom had led to their deaths, and of all those who had died violently as collateral in the phantom's plans. Yet things didn't make sense; a nagging thought told him there was much more to Mason's story.

"Does it always happen the same way?" Ford finally asked.

"Yes, even with me. My double was captured first as we entered Gravity Falls, but it is different now." That got their attention.

"Different, how?" Dipper turned back to Mason.

"For one thing, there is only one of you." Mason pointed to Dipper.

"What do you mean, what about you, don't you count?" Dipper asked skeptical of Mason's assessment of the situation.

"No, I don't." He shook his head and looked at Dipper. "There were always two Dippers of the same age; never different ages and both had their companions with them. Now there is only you, and also the other Dippers were not warriors. The TC does not exist anywhere outside of this dimension."

"What?" Dipper looked at Ford. "Did you know this?"

"No, but this changes many things." Dipper watched as Ford's eyes drifted out of focus, his grunkle's mind processed the new information and began to work out new ideas.

"I've spent a couple of months watching you two come and go and I have to admit, you two have no equals in the other dimensions." Mason laughed. "Well, except for me, I had to learn how to fight to survive on my Earth after the phantom ravaged it." Dipper noticed an arrogant note in Mason's voice. So the man thinks he can compare himself to me?

"Well that explains it!" Ford's outburst startled them and then he began to pace up and down the store. "It all makes sense now, there can only be one; this dimension is dimension zero! The main hub, like a wagon wheel, this dimension is at the centre and all others are spokes radiating from it. It holds all realities and the multi-verse itself together!" He smiled, began to pace faster and used his hands to explain. "That's why Bill wanted it and that's why the TC is headquartered here! If the phantom is building a universal portal this is where he would do it, this dimension is the access point to everything." There was so much joy in his eyes. "I now know why there is so much weirdness in Gravity Falls; the town must be at the centre of the multi-dimensional cosmos." Ford hurried off to parts unknown; they heard him talk to himself and rummage through stuff in random rooms of the shack. At that Mason began to get up off the stool, but stopped as Dipper's blade whistled through the air and halted just short of removing his face.

"No." Mason reluctantly sat back down. "I'm not done with you."

"What more do you want from me?" Mason sounded tired.

"What happened to the others?"

"What others?"

"The other Dippers, what happened to them?" Dipper had three questions, this was number one. Mason fidgeted on the stool and kept his head low; it was a while before he said anything.

"Why do you want to know that?"

"You're still hiding something, what is it?" Dipper was weary of Mason's deception.

Then they both jumped as a loud crash disturbed the tension. Somewhere in the shack Ford had gotten too enthusiastic about his search.

"I'm ok, nothing to worry about, everything is fine!" Ford shouted from somewhere in the back of the house.

"So..." Dipper returned his attention to Mason.

"I'd rather not tell you, I doubt you'll like the answer." This time Mason looked right at Dipper. His eyes held those of the sixteen year-old Dipper, and waited.

"Perhaps you're right; I don't really need to know that." Dipper smiled and turned to slowly move away. He watched from the corner of his eye as Mason began to get up off of the stool and that's when he swung back and kicked it out from under him. Mason tried to grab hold of the counter but Dipper slammed the flat side of a blade on his hand and Mason landed hard on the floor. He lay sprawled on his back and moaned. His eyes focused on Dipper with shock and fear.

"You think you can challenge or even compare yourself to me?! I can kill you in ways you haven't even thought of!" Dipper bent down and raged at Mason, with the tip of his sword imbedded in Mason's left arm. There was a moment that stretched between them while blood pooled on the floor. A second later Mason twisted his arm from under the blade and in one swift move rotated his body and pushed himself up to his feet. His right hand reached inside his coat and pulled out a revolver from a hidden holster, while his left released a short spring-loaded blade. Both weapons were intercepted by Dipper's blades but Mason managed to pull the trigger and a bullet whistled passed Dipper's right ear. The next few seconds were a frenzy of bullets and sword thrusts, as both men dodged and parried with their weapons. Eventually Mason's revolver ran dry and the two stood face to face mere inches from each other.

The barrel of Mason's empty revolver was firmly pressed against Dipper's left temple; his finger kept pulling the trigger.

"You're out." Dipper said matter of fact. Mason grinned.

The edge of Dipper's right-hand blade rested steadily across Mason's throat.

Their other blades were pressed between them and slowly ground their edges against each other. The store suffered bullet holes, broken glass and the crimson of blood spray over several items. One of the slugs grazed Dipper's forearm which dripped blood to the floor directly into the pool of Mason's own blood. With every drop a tiny lightening bolt arched over the pool with an electric fizz.

"What in hell is going on here?!" Ford ran into the store with both blade and pistol drawn. He froze in the door way. "Have you two gone mad? You'll kill us all! Step away from each other!"

Mason slowly lifted the pistol away from Dipper's head and with a steady hand holstered it; Dipper did not remove his blade.

"What happened to the others?" The question passed between them like a deadly snake.

"They..." Mason still hesitated and Dipper encouraged him with pressure on the blade against his throat. "I... did things I'm not proud of."

"Tell me than why you survived?" The second question. "After the phantom captured you, why didn't he just do with you what he did with the others?"

"I made a deal with him." Mason's eyes lowered away from Dipper's and his demeanor changed.

"Why would he make a deal with you?"

"I don't know." Truth?

"What kind of deal was it?"

"That I would steer the others to him..." Mason's body slackened and he lowered his blade.

"You did what?! Why?" Dipper began to see the whole picture.

"He promised me something." Dipper removed his sword from Mason's throat and watched the man fall apart before his eyes.

"What could he possibly promise you that would make you betray so many to their deaths?" Dipper couldn't hide his disgust.

"Look, I don't have what you have, I'm not a superman." His voice had an edge of resentment in it. "Yes, I can travel between dimensions but any moron with a Dimensional Translator can do that. What I can't do is time-travel. So that's what he did, he promised to bring me back; back to when the others were alive, back to a time when my Wendy was alive." Suddenly Mason laughed manically and tears ran down his cheeks. "I led them to their deaths and then I watched... as they died!" He looked a shell of a man, broken, defeated, lost. His mind had seen the deaths of so many that it finally cracked. Dipper wanted to feel pity for the man, but revulsion was all he had.

"You know he can only send you back in time, but he can't make you any younger?" Ford pointed out.

"And that's the worst of it; I've always known that so I..." Mason stopped, his head dropped and shambled over to the stool, picked it up and slumped on it.

Ford and Dipper moved over to the main door, far enough that Mason would not hear them, but close enough to stop him if he acted out.

"What do we do now?" Dipper had an image of his friends being killed by the lizard-man. "We can't bring him with us to the spaceship, there is no way we can trust him! I'm not even sure if all he'd told us is the truth."

"No, no of course not." Ford glanced at Mason but looked preoccupied with something.

"Ford what's going on?" Dipper had seen this look before, it usually meant serious trouble. Ford turned his back to Mason and pulled an unusual device from his coat pocket. Numbers flashed across a small screen and a countdown slipped down towards zero.

"He at least told this one truth, this dimension is dimension zero." Ford held up the timer. "Unfortunately the portal the phantom has opened here is running out of time. It has begun to destabilize and soon the gravity coupling will disintegrate and cracks will open up in our reality." Dipper's mouth fell open.

"How much time do we have?"

"We only have three hours of relative time left, after that... I don't know."

"So what do we do? There isn't enough time to hike all the way to the ship! Do we risk jumping it?"

"I think this drama has not yet fully played itself out, we might have to wait and see what happens." Ford didn't sound very comfortable with this idea and neither did Dipper, but there was nothing more they could do.

As the two of them deliberated over the timer and their situation, they both missed Mason's actions. He stood with his feet firmly planted and methodically reloaded his revolver from an ammunition belt around his hips. Bullet after bullet slipped into the chambers with a satisfying click. Four, click. Five, click. Six, click, slide. When done, he tested the trigger mechanism and holstered the weapon. He flexed his hands and cracked his knuckles, lowered his body, squared his shoulders and rushed at the two men before him. His aim was the door and the freedom that lay beyond. The force of his charge knocked Ford into Dipper and threw them both against the wall. The door burst open with such violence that a hinge was ripped out of the wall.

Mason soared over the front porch and into the bright sunlight. He spun round in the dirt and searched for Wendy, but instead there before him, on an old rickety fence post was a hat. It sat perfectly on top of the post, as if it belonged there. Wendy. As comprehension downed on him, he accepted that the servant had taken her as well. He walked up to the hat and gently took it off the post, closed his eyes and sighed deeply. He then turned around and grudgingly returned to the Mystery Shack.

Both Ford and Dipper waited for him on the porch. He needed them after all; the Emperor had broken his promise.

"You'll want to know the rest of the story, it gets even better." He was about to break his own promise.

"Ok, as you probably figured it out, what I told you in the Monastery was a lie." They sat out on the porch with drinks in their hands and talked. Whatever was to come, it seemed they had time for this. "There was no Leanne in my world and I didn't have to kill my Wendy, she was killed by one of the Emperor's soldiers and I was taken just like the others. The Emperor planned all of this just so I could insinuate myself into your group and bring you here."

"You lied so much to us, what makes you think we're going to believe you now?" Dipper asked.

"Because, now I'm telling you the truth." Mason sounded exasperated.

"Yeah, right." Dipper scoffed. "Why now? What's changed?" Mason ran a hand through his unruly hair and bit his upper lip apprehensively.

"I need your help." Mason looked at them expectantly.

"To do what, kill the phantom? Is that even the truth?" Ford sat quietly and watched Dipper drill Mason.

"No, I don't think anybody could actually kill the Emperor. I need your help to rescue Wendy, and in turn I'll help you rescue Pacifica." He stroked the hat tenderly. "The Emperor promised to leave her to me; she was supposed to wait here. But he broke that promise and she's gone."

"He promised her to you, how?" This had gotten ridiculous. How could one being control so many?

"When I gave Leanne the serum, it brought her memory back, but did not remove the programming." Mason pulled out a small glass vile with a golden liquid. "The Emperor's scientists gave me this to counteract the memory block, but the programming remained."

"I thought you said the programming was to kill me and Pacifica? That was that a lie wasn't it?" Dipper corrected himself.

"Yes that was a lie. Her programming was to wait for me, and once I extricated myself from you I was to pick her up and we'd be off to my dimension. But she's obviously not here, which means the servant took her."

"Maybe she just grew tired of your lies and bullshit and left on her own." Dipper leaned back in his chair and stared Mason down.

"Look, you really don't have a clue who you're dealing with; you need me as much as I need you." Mason leaned back and shook his head. "Lord Vilis Inpuratus, Emperor of the Multi-Verse truly is Emperor of the multi-verse; he is in control of everything!" Mason's earnestness surprised Dipper. "All this time you two thought you were working for the TC? Well guess what, you were actually working for him."

"That's not possible; I would have known something like that." Ford spoke up.

"No you wouldn't. His empire spans hundreds of thousands of years, billions upon billions of worlds and an almost infinite amount of beings. What makes you think that someone this powerful would let you in on the secret?"

"Then why the anomalies, why the uncontrolled portals?" Ford showed his frustration. "And why this?" He took out the timer and tossed it to Mason.

"What is this?"

"That timer is counting down to when the portal this Emperor has set up in Gravity Falls becomes so unstable that it will destroy this world and the multi-verse with it."

"What? That's not possible." Mason's shocked expression was priceless, it made Dipper smile. "I've seen the future, I know that the gates are stable and open all the time! They exist throughout the whole of the multi-verse; almost every world has one and they're all connected."

"That is absolutely correct my dear fellow." All three of them reacted the same way, on their feet and weapons drawn. The servant stood in the middle of the open field with his head cocked to one side and a big grin on his face. "Hello there, Pines family. Don't you think that perhaps it's time you finally met your Emperor?" He began to stride towards them. "I will generously provide the transportation."

"I don't think so; we're not going anywhere with you!" Dipper stepped down from the porch and prepared to fight.

"But you don't understand you see you don't have a choice. In a matter of minutes this dimension and all the others will cease to exist, but not if you come with me." He did not stop his approach.

"Dipper, as much as I hate to say this, he's right." Ford came down and placed his hand on Dipper's shoulder. "We are running out of time, whatever the phant... the Emperor is planning; we probably need to be there."

"That's the spirit Ford, nothing like pure intellect to give us some common sense. Now Mr. Mason would you be so kind as to join us." The servant stopped in front of Dipper and Ford then pointed at a place next to Ford.

"I have one question for you." Mason took his time. "What did you do with the town's people?"

"Ah, I'm glad you noticed. This is a very auspicious time in the rule of our glorious Emperor Vilis Inpuratus, so he has gathered them all to bear witness to his glory. They will observe the true beginning of his omnipotent and eternal rule." The servant, with his strange voice, gushed so much emotion that Dipper felt sick.

The instant Mason was within range, the scenery changed and they ended up deep inside the Trilazzxx Beta's spaceship. The power was on and the ship hummed gently. In front of them was a massive portal, its size was overwhelming and its colours were a rainbow of the most exotic Dipper had ever seen. It swirled hypnotically with occasional bursts of electricity across its massive event horizon. The light that emanated from it lit up a scene as rich and beautiful as it was the bizarre.

"Welcome to the coronation of our Emperor!" With raised hands, the servant spoke with a voice that resonated throughout every corner of the cavernous interior. From their position directly in front of the portal, Dipper watched as burst of thunderous applause and euphoria erupted from the countless multitudes of the most extraordinary beings encompassing the portal. While most stood on the same level as Dipper, others completely covered a number of large balconies that floated above the crowds. There were yet others who glided through the cavern on gossamer wings or hovered with the use of technology. Dipper staggered backwards trying to absorb the scene, that's when the servant turned to him and spoke with the outmost reverence. "Welcome Master Pines..."


	13. Chapter 13: Gilded Cage

The darkness was friendly. The darkness comforted her. It held her in its arms like a mother holds a child. She was wrapped in a dark cocoon of softness, warmth and sleep. But her thoughts wouldn't let her go; there was something wrong. The warm softness of her surroundings contradicted her last memory of the cold day in Gravity Falls. Of Dipper's arm around her and the nervousness she felt about their plans.

"Dipper..." She spoke his name both out of a need for his company and out of a need to hear her own voice. "Dipper?" Muted silence.

She wasn't sure if her eyes were open or if the darkness was so all encompassing that it blinded her. Her body felt lethargic unwilling to respond, but her mind was aware of these things and wanted to fight. Finally her hand slid across the softness and up towards her face. Once there, she pushed against the softness, it was heavy but it gave way and she moved it higher and higher, away from herself. There was a sudden rush of cool air and a momentary break in the darkness. A spark of hope, a fleeting possibility of escape. She pushed harder, further and broke through into day light!

"Good morning Lady Northwest, I'm glad you are awake." She groggily sat up and looked around for the owner of the voice. On her right, next to the giant bed Pacifica currently found herself in, stood a young red-haired demure little girl. Her blazing red hair hung over her left shoulder and down her black dress in a long side-braid. Her eyes were two glistening pools of deep blue in a happy freckled face. With her mind still addled by sleep, Pacifica could only stare at the little urchin. "Hope you slept well mistress. Would you like your breakfast right away or would you like to take a bath first?" The little girl's singsong voice reminded her of a flock of birds, a flock of happy little birds.

The brightness of the room slowly burned the cobwebs away and Pacifica began to absorb her spacious surroundings. The room was astounding! Four large and intricately elaborate pillars stood in the four corners and between them were the most realistic representations of landscapes Pacifica had ever seen. A magnificent desert stretched before her, a lush green savannah opened up on her right, a deep dark jungle beckoned on the left and behind was a glorious view of snow capped mountains. The round bed itself sat in the very centre of the room. She looked up to see where the light came from and was astonished to see a clear blue sky. Here and there white cotton clouds drifted lazily across the blue expanse, and judging from the position of the sun, it was probably noon. She took a deep breath and the fresh scent of spring blossoms greeted her.

"How about if I first help you out of this big bed, mistress." The little girl climbed up onto the bed, stood up on her bare feet, straightened out her dress and walked over to Pacifica. "Please take my hand, mistress. There are a lot of folds in the cover; we wouldn't want you to fall." The little girl held out her hand and waited. Pacifica doubted the little girl could hold her up if she fell, but she removed the heavy covers and carefully stood up; she took the girl's hand and walked with her to the side of the bed. "Careful now, it's a bit high but you can probably slide off it on your bum." The girl giggled and immediately looked up to Pacifica for approval. "I beg your pardon, mistress. I know I should watch my language."

"It's ok; I'm not offended by the truth." Pacifica sat down and slid off, on her bum. The girl followed and they both laughed.

"Where am I?" Pacifica looked down at her white nightgown and ran her fingers over the beautifully delicate lace patterns. She did not remember changing into it or arriving in the bedroom.

"You are in your apartments, mistress", the girl responded puzzled.

"My apartments?" The notion of ownership of something this luxurious enticed her deeply. The mansion her family lost was still a sour note in her life. She wandered around the room and took in its splendor, everything from the beautifully carved pillars to the marble floor spoke of riches. She approached the mountains and noticed a set of golden double doors standing before them. The doors were free from the wall with hinges but no frame; they stood alone and were covered in beautifully detailed patterns of interlaced vines. There were no handles or doorknobs. Was this some kind of decoration?

"Yes, your apartments in the Emperor's palace." The little girl spun round with raised hands. "All this is yours, mistress, including me." At that she bowed so low her long hair brushed against the white marble floor.

"Including you?" A slave? "In that case what is your name?" She hoped she was wrong, a servant perhaps, but not a slave!

"My name is Lamirree, mistress and I'm here to serve you in any way you wish." Again Lamirree bowed. Pacifica went back to the bed and sat down. She wanted to think; she needed to think. What happened to her? Where were the others? Did they go through with their plan? Her mind swam with so many questions it almost hurt.

"Mistress? Mistress?" Lamirree placed a hand on Pacifica's knee and looked expectantly into her face.

"You said something about a bath. Where do I go for that?" A bath would be nice; a bath would give her time to think.

"This way, mistress, please follow me." Lamirree brightened and immediately ran up to the jungle mural. "It's just down the path through the jungle." Pacifica stared at her and at the mural and thought that the girl had lost her mind. Then she paid closer attention to the mural and with a start realized her error. These were not murals but were the actual landscapes of worlds other than her current one. She took a second look at the others and noticed movement and animals, sand drifts and snow falls. These were other worlds other dimensions. She approached the jungle cautiously and saw the path Lamirree pointed to; it snaked its way deep into the jungle. She understood then that this was a Dimensional Door.

"How far does this path go?"

"Not far mistress, just around the bend and past that big tree. The bath is well hidden, privacy is important!" Lamirree reached out and took hold of her hand. "Come mistress, let me show you." The two of them entered the jungle and immediately Pacifica was struck by the humidity of the place and the overwhelming richness of scents and the exotic fragrance of jungle flowers. When she looked behind her, she saw the room framed by those large pillars surrounded by the jungle, a world within a world.

They followed a winding path paved with flat round stones. Confidently, Lamirree led her through this wild environment and as promised just around the bend the jungle opened up into a private bathing area. Before her was a small crystal-clear lagoon and next to the water's edge on a marble floor sat a set of wooden recliners, a table with four chairs around it, and a large towel rack. The towel rack was currently occupied by a flock of colourful birds, Lamirree ran up to them and shooed them away. They took flight in a flurry of colour and noise.

"Some creatures don't know their place in the world", she said indignantly and marched back to Pacifica. "This belongs to you mistress, not to a bunch of misbehaving birds." Pacifica laughed and Lamirree looked approvingly. "Now mistress, you take a bath and I'll go and bring you a set of fresh clothes. Is there any style you'd prefer?"

"I'll leave that in you capable hands, Lamirree." At that the little girl's eyes bulged and a wide toothy smile appeared.

"Thank you mistress, I will not disappoint!" Lamirree bowed and quickly ran off back to where they came from and Pacifica was left alone, alone in the jungle.

The notion of this somehow being hers brought back the self-satisfied feeling she had back in Gravity Falls. Status and power felt good, but her conscience quickly reminded her of the others. Where were they and where exactly was she? These might be her apartments and Lamirree might be her servant, but why was she given all this? She decided to take that bath.

Pacifica tested the water with her foot and felt its warmth beckon to her. Then she looked about to make sure that she truly was alone and other than the birds she was. Next she slipped out of her nightgown and let it fall to the ground. Self-consciously her hands covered her nakedness, and once again she quickly glanced about the jungle. Alone. Pacifica waded deep into the lagoon and allowed its warmth to sooth her worried mind; she leaned back and let the water carry her.

Deep steady breaths. One, two, three, four... relax. When younger, Pacifica would imagine being in a world all of her own, one where her parents' control did not exist. Now she truly was in one, a dream come true. She thought of Lamirree and the dedication the girl showed her. There was admiration in her eyes, an almost hero-worship. Why?

Her thoughts drifted freely, from her parents to Dipper, from bondage to freedom. She suddenly missed him; this would have been the perfect place for them. Dipper's face floated before her and her heart ached for him and her body longed for his touch. Soon she was thinking back to their first kiss and how awkward and sweaty Dipper had been. She giggled and recalled the week that followed, a week of winter fun and fresh romance. The following summer was mostly spent away from the Mystery Shack and away from curious eyes; they were not yet ready for the world to know. Their relationship grew stronger while Dipper's and Mable's grew weaker. It made her sad to see that, but it was their choice. Strangely she struck up a friendship with Wendy; perhaps it was their curious bonding over Dipper. Then came the separation; a time that cost her dearly not least because Dipper was away but also because her new best friend left. During the three years that followed, Ford's secret request became her mission, something to occupy her time while she waited for their return.

She drifted like this in a fog of memory for what seemed like hours and was startled back to reality when the first sucker fish gently nibbled her toe. She stood up and watched fascinated as thousands of tiny silvery oscillating bodies swarmed up to her. They came from the edges of the lagoon, hungry and eager to clean. She hadn't thought of it before, but there was no soap to wash with. Only now did that make sense, the fish did the cleaning. She reveled in the sensation, with goose-bumps spreading all over. The fish were very thorough, cleaning well the dirt from several days of travel. She closed her eyes and lowered herself under the surface. She stayed there suspended in a world between what was and what must be, free for a moment in time.

As if by command the fish suddenly left and she emerged from the lagoon to the songs of the wild birds, her skin radiant. Lamirree stood patiently on the shore with her new clothes spread over the rack. As Pacifica approached the shore, she noticed the water leave her body and hurry back to the lagoon, leaving her dry and ready to be dressed. Was this water or...?

"I have selected the finest dress for you mistress," Lamirree said as she pointed to a delicate lake-foam green dress, "it will look especially good on you for your audience with the Emperor."

"The Emperor?" The dream collapsed around her, as she remembered where she was and who was ultimately in charge. "When does he want to see me?" Apprehension grew inside her belly.

"At your leisure mistress." Lamirree's eyes were bright and she bounced on the balls of her feet, unable to contain her excitement. "It will be my first time in his presence." The girl's excitement contrasted with Pacifica's own emotions. How could the girl look forward to seeing him? Pacifica only knew about the Emperor from what Dipper, Ford and Mason had told her. Was there something more? Was there something that removed the stain of evil from him?

"Tell me about him. What is he like?" With Lamirree's help she began to dress.

"Mistress?" Her request must have been an odd one. "There isn't anything more I could tell you than what you already know, mistress. You traveled with him." Perhaps this was when she was brought here; of course she had no memory of it.

"Well I'd like to know what you think and know of him, humour me."

"Well, he... he... he is amazing!" Lamirree answered exited to talk about her favourite subject. "He always wears a cloak and does not speak, but he is the most generous and loving person. Those who have seen him tell me there is a glow to him that radiates all around." Pacifica easily slipped the long dress over her head and it flowed down to wrap itself flawlessly around her. The delicate material moved like liquid and she could hardly feel its presence. Its fit was so perfect as to make Pacifica wonder if Lamirree secretly took her measurements while she slept.

"This dress is extraordinary, how does it fit me so well?" She twirled and watched as it arranged itself beautifully around her.

"The dress is made of..." Lamirree scrunched up her face and looked up to the side, deep in thought, "self-replicating nano-material that adjusts itself perfectly to the wearer's shape." She beamed proudly at being able to remember the technical description. "So that's why it fits you so well, mistress."

"Well that was a mouth full." They both laughed. Pacifica loved the dress and wanted nothing more than to show it off, but she couldn't let it distract her from the Emperor. "Tell me more about the Emperor. If he does not speak, how then does he communicate?" This seemed no less unusual than if Lamirree had told her he two heads.

"His servants know his instructions intuitively and even his ministers know exactly what he wants of them." As she was led down the path back to the bedroom. Pacifica was barefoot like Lamirree, no sign of shoes to go with the dress. "He communicates directly to their minds. I think it's the best way to talk to someone, this way there is no misunderstand of what you are saying. Wouldn't you agree mistress?"

"Perhaps..." A way to communicate or a way to control? "But other than his interesting way of communicating with others, what else makes him so wonderful?" This might have been a line of questioning that could endanger her, but she wasn't in a mood to take it safe. She was after all in the house of the beast and needed to know how to survive. "I mean why are you this excited to meet him? To tell you the truth I have heard some rather unsavoury tales about him." Pacifica watched Lamirree's back for any reaction, but the girl took it all in and came back with in interesting explanation.

"What you have heard, mistress is all because of the Enemy. He and his deceivers try to destroy what the Emperor has built for us." They reached the bedroom. "Because of the Emperor's army there is now peace and order in the multi-verse and we all can travel to wherever we want. You see mistress, before the Emperor, my dimension was cut off and all my family lived in the dirt, but now we can travel anywhere. I can even go and see the Singing Sands of Castlemere or travel freely to the cities and meet beings I never knew existed." Lamirree's excitement was contagious and as she stood surrounded by the opulence of the bedroom, Pacifica began to doubt what she had heard about the Emperor. "My family lives well and my father's business is very prosperous, and even my sisters found good places to work and now live in the cities. I've been to visit them and it's amazing! Mistress, we are free to go where we want to and to do as we please, even I have become a servant in the Royal Household, a thing not even imagined as possible before." Pacifica looked intently at Lamirree and digested everything the girl told her. Her own world was a mess, countries at war, people at war, yet here she was presented with the possibility of peace, universal peace. Too good to be true?

"Wait a second; did you just say you're working in the Royal Household?"

"Yes mistress, the Royal Household."

"And these are my apartments?"

"Yes mistress, in the Emperor's palace." The girl gave her a quizzical look.

"Lamirree, who am I in all of this and what have you been told about me?" Who was she, or more to the point who did they believe she was?

"Mistress, you sure have some strange questions." Lamirree smiled and Pacifica encouraged her to answer. "You are the Lady of the Lost Path, the one of whom the divine prophesy tells will come full circle." Lamirree bowed deep at this and stayed down until Pacifica pulled her up.

"Tell me, what else does the prophesy say?" Does it say how to defeat the Emperor? Yet by now she wasn't sure if that should be her intent. There was more to all of this then just a simple war between good and evil, or perhaps she started out on the wrong side. It wouldn't be the first time she was on the wrong side.

"I am sorry mistress, but that is all I know of your prophesy." The girl pouted apologetically and lowered her eyes. "Maybe the Sphinx would know more, but... but..." Lamirree stopped.

"But what?" Pacifica wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer to that 'but'. This world she had found herself in and now this prophesy was all too much. She was just a girl from a town only a few people knew of, albeit a rich girl, but still just your ordinary sixteen year old girl. "Could the Sphinx tell me more about my prophesy?"

"Yes... the Sphinx could tell you a lot of things concerning the future, mistress but..." here it was again the 'but', "the Sphinx could just as well kill you." Lamirree rubbed her hands together and took a step back as her eyes swept the floor in search of a distraction. In the girl's reaction Pacifica recognized a fear she herself knew well and had faced three years earlier.

Was the possibility of finding out about her future worth being killed for?

 _The Lady of the Lost Path... the one that comes full circle..._

Hell yeah!


	14. Chapter 14: Exile

Down on all fours; he retched for the third time. There was nothing but bile and it burned his throat. His eyes filled with tears and the hot sand scorched his hands and cauterized the cut. Yet he noticed none of it. The horror of knowing had followed him into this desert furnace. The horror of knowing he was at fault!

 _Before his eyes was the vision of the two cloaked figures descending from up on high to a rhythmic beat of applause from an undulating throng of thousands of admirers with rapturous faces._

The sun's heat baked his back. His long master's coat was long gone and so were his weapons and the thin white t-shirt he wore provided no real protection. His augmented body could survive even here, but there was a limit, and without shade he would soon reach it.

His flesh still recoiled from the devastation of dissolving as tendrils of electricity ran wild over his body. Muscle spasms made him twitch from all that chaotic power. He recalled with fear that maddening moment when all he did had no effect on those that held him. His strength, his speed and all his skills had failed him.

He fell on his side as a seizure ravaged his body, and when it was over he tasted blood. Did he bite his tongue?

 _They were grabbed, stripped of all they had and placed in restraints. Both he and Mason were brought before the portal and their hands were forced close together. The servant related to them in excruciating detail the purpose of their life and the meaning of that insufferable birthmark. It was a mark of their uniqueness, a mark of their 'power'. Only they had it. Unlike all the others they alone were of use to the Emperor._

He raised himself and knelt in the sun scorched sand. His eyes stung from the tears and the sand that caked his face. His hands and arms had begun to blister. This was the payment for the deaths he had caused. This was his Hell.

 _He remembered Ford's words_ 'Stop! This is madness! We'll all die!' _he begged them, as their flesh began to dissolve and static electricity exploded all around them. The servant patiently explained that from the very first time Dipper and Mason travelled through a portal, their future was set in stone. The very nature of their genetic double helix was the cause of the destabilized portals, all of the portals in the entire multi-verse. He stood before them talking as their palms were forced open, and then using one of Dipper's own blades, the servant gleefully sliced deeply into them. Immediately blood gushed from the wounds and was caught in a crystalline chalice resembling a sacrificial vessel._

The convulsions continued as his flesh rippled under his skin. He had to become a Master, he had to follow Ford! His pride at being offered an apprenticeship might have garnered him admiration and respect, but it destroyed worlds. It killed thousands, if not millions. The revulsion he felt for himself obstructed all other thought. He was the evil one.

 _With their unique genetics activated, the swirling madness of the Universal Portal was to feast on their fresh blood offering. The price for the Empire's eternal existence and the only solution to the portals' stability was their blood, their unique blood. The servant approached the portal until the gravitational pull was enough to let the chalice float gracefully into the event-horizon. It entered dissolving into the light. The last moment he remembered before this desert hell, was when the Oracle emerged out of the portal and calmly walked past the servant and up to him and Mason. Then all was light._

"We failed..." The Oracle sounded surprised. "but... but how? How did this happen?" He once had considered her to be so sublime, the epitome of the perfect being. She had given him his traveling abilities and the two deadly sabers he was so proficient with. Now she walked nervously back and forth making tracks in the sand; her long monk's cloak snapped with every turn and threw sand at him. "Do you realize what this means? The war is lost! He has won and we gave him this victory." Her voice quivered. "No, no I gave him this victory, I let you go I... I... failed." Her legs buckled under her and she collapsed to the sand beside him. Through pain and nausea he watched as her skin glistened in the sharp light.

"Who won the war, the Ghost or the Emperor?" His breath came in raged gulps, his eyesight was blurred and there were razors in his parched throat. He wasn't even sure if she heard him, maybe he just imagined asking her. The shocked look on her face confirmed that she had indeed heard him. "There is no 'ghost', is there? There has always only been the Emperor, but you kept that from us." His genetics betrayed him, this was undeniable and out of his control, but she betrayed him willingly. "What did you expect? You lied and so we faced him unprepared!" He looked up with defiance at those seven eyes; he knew she was wrong.

"You don't understand I had to, the Benevolent Axolotl deemed it necessary." There was hurt in her voice and her eyes pleaded with him to understand. Dipper was having none of it.

"Did he then foresee this future as well?" His magnificent frilly shit. "Did he also know about my genetics and the deaths I would cause?!" The last words he screamed at her. Another tremor threw him to the ground and he thrashed about making dust clouds.

"You... you don't know what you're saying. He truly is good, he... he only wants what's best for all of us." He heard her clearly despite thrashing about and something inside him even wanted to believe her. But reality, well reality had a different idea. They lost and now his innards were ripping themselves apart. "He gave me a Quantum Governor; it's on your right forearm. It's what's keeping you alive because he wants you to stay alive." Should he be thankful?

"Why...?" Sand gritted between his teeth. "Why does he care if I'm alive?" Why won't he just let me die?

"The truth is I don't know, but he sees a bigger purpose in all of this, I am sure of it." She slowly stood up and made her way over to his side. She stood over him and for a moment he felt relief as her shadow sheltered him. "We will be ok, maybe not today, but eventually it will all..." Her voice trailed off and he thought he heard a note of doubt.

"Bullshit..." She stiffened.

"The Quantum Governor is keeping you alive, but unfortunately it prevents you from traveling through the multi-verse." She became the Oracle again and her voice hardened. "The danger still exists that you might destro... that there might be problems, so the Benevolent Axolotl decided to place you here in this dimension. It's the oldest and furthest from the centre; here you will be safe."

"I will be safe, or will all of you be safe from me?" He recognized the lie.

"I'm sorry, but this is good bye. You will not see me again." For a second he was blinded by two suns, until the closer one took her away and then he was alone, to suffer in his own personal hell. He passed out.

When he awoke, the sun had set and the stars were out. His face was pressed hard into the sand and he lay in an awkward position; he must have had another seizure. Death had not yet taken him, but he wasn't sure if that was a good thing. His movements were a labour of pain and he felt fatigued enough to kill a weaker man. He had read somewhere that to journey through a desert you slept during the day and traveled at night; now was his opportunity. He didn't know how long he had slept or how long the night would last, but he needed to move. He moved. He screamed. He moved again. He screamed again. His body, while still together refused to believe that his limbs were properly attached. Fortunately the nausea had passed, however the pain that lingered threatened to pull him under. Inch by painful inch he made it to his knees. The stars illuminated the landscape from above and the sand itself glowed with a soft green light from below. With all this light he saw his sun scorched right arm, the skin peeled and angry lesions crisscrossed its entire length. The oval governor sat in the middle of his forearm and was completely covered in blood and puss, but still continued to work. He had damaged that hand before in the Monastery, now he imagined that in time this burn would one day be added to the map of scars it bore. Unable to hold back he passed out.

 _Pacifica held his hand as they ran down the hall of her parents' mansion. She led him over its luxurious plush carpets and past its numerous doors. Her grip was strong and she pulled him along mercilessly. Her green dress flowed around her, temporarily exposing long legs and delicate bare feet. He watched as her hair danced in the rush of air. She gazed back at him with electric blue eyes so bright it hurt him to look at them. Their manic rush down the hallway came to a sudden stop before a set of stone double doors. They bore strange markings in a language he didn't recognize and in the middle, split by the seam, was a swirl of a galaxy. The doors parted exposing the bright swirling event horizon of a dimensional portal._

He woke. It was still night. He was on his knees and he was drenched in sweat; a cold shiver ran through him. An infection must have crept in.

He struggled with monumental effort to rise and stand. Once up on shaky legs, he looked around. Every direction was the same; there was not one distinguishing feature in all this iridescence. So he looked up to the heavens in search of constellations he recognized, but none existed. The stars here were unfamiliar, but no less beautiful. He watched as a passing meteor shower streamed across the night sky, covering the heavens in long streamers of coloured light. Mabel would have loved the shooting stars. He eventually decided that any direction was as good as another and lurched forward one foot in from of the other.

By the time the sky had begun to brighten he had covered a distance great enough that he could not see where his footsteps had first started, except now he was about to face another scorching day. There still was no shade in sight, the landscape was a flat sun seared plain, but he did notice one anomaly. Off to his left there happened to be a break in the iridescence, a dark spot. He plodded in its direction.

He was about half way to the dark spot when the first of the sun's rays broke over the horizon in front of him and immediately the heat came rushing in. He sped up his pace, hoping to make it to the dark spot before the iridescence completely disappeared. His legs carried him faithfully, a step at a time, a shuffle at a time. Soon he realized he was cresting a small hill and on the other side was...

...nothing.

The plain continued as before, flat and featureless.

A shudder ran through him and dropped him to his knees.

He blacked out.

When he came to, he was on his back at the bottom of the hill and covered in sand. Another seizure must have hit him. The sky above was clear light blue and the sun made short work of the small hill's shadow; soon he would be exposed again.

Pitt Cola.

He could sell his soul for a can of Pitt Cola. Maybe he could find a vending machine somewhere around here...

"What the hell?" He rasped out. He attempted to turn over and made it half way before the pain forced him back down. Yet this time when he returned to the sand his back hit something hard. It jabbed his back and felt only mildly uncomfortable compared to the rest of his body, but it was something different. He again attempted to turn over and again failed, but this time when he fell back the something gave way a bit. His third attempt was a repeat of the previous two. By now the sun had stepped over the hill and blazed directly at him. He could feel the last bit of moisture leaving his body, this would be it. Death and Pitt Cola. He actually smiled. Where was a vending machine when you needed one? He made a final pathetic attempt to turn over and rolled back without success.

"I give up, just kill me..." There was a shudder under him, something gave way. The next moment he was free falling though dust and debris. So this is how it ends? When he hit, he hit hard enough to break bones, his augmented body kept him alive but only just. He could see the opening above him and then...


	15. Chapter 15: WendyLeanne

Wendy didn't wake up. She surfaced.

When she came out, she found herself in that giant bed, in a nightgown and with a servant: Kerry.

After leaving the Mystery Shack, she was accosted by the servant in the field directly outside. He came upon her suddenly from behind and after that her awareness became muddled. There were moments of clarity and recognition, but they were few and far between. During that time she mostly existed in a state of catatonia, not fully asleep but neither fully awake. She remembered the cloaked figures, the Universal Portal and she was aware of a ceremony that took place before it. Afterward there were images that flashed before her eyes with the turbulent feel of a dream. Yet how she came to be in the bedroom or in a nightgown was beyond her.

"I'm Wendy…" The 'program' swam just bellow the surface, but that meant she was still winning the battle.

"Good morning Lady Corduroy, I'm glad you are awake." Despite being fully awake she held back and pretended to be groggy and still under the influence of whatever drug the servant gave her. She observed the young girl on her right: short black hair cut in a bob, large intelligent blue eyes within a mousy face. The Girl's complexion was so pale it bordered on sickly, but the overall look was not unpleasant. She rolled over under the covers and onto her stomach then tensed her muscles. "Hope you slept well mistress. Would you like your breakfast right away or would you like to take a bath first?" Wendy would have loved to have a bath, especially one with bubbles. It was the one girly luxury she permitted herself to have. A long bath, a quiet bath, especially one where the door was well locked and propped up with a chair against her brothers' rude intrusions.

"Water..." Get the kid to move away and drop her guard. Wendy watched the girl walk around the bed and out of her field of view, then she readied herself. Wherever this was, she was not staying.

"Here you go mistress, a nice glass of fresh water." This was what she anticipated, the moment to act, she needed to move. The kid was leaning over the bed with the glass, off balanced and exposed. Her mind worked out all the possible outcomes and acted on none of them. Instead she rolled over, sat up and reached for the glass. Her mind puzzled by the situation and her lack of action.

"Thank you." She took deep gulps and enjoyed the satisfying sensation of the cool liquid washing down her parched throat. After she emptied the glass she decided to come clean with the kid and dropped the sleepy-Wendy act. "Who are you?" Perhaps it would be better to understand the situation before acting.

"I'm Kerry, your servant, mistress." The girl bowed in half. Wendy blinked several times attempting to decipher the words.

"My servant? What do you mean by that?" Was she human or just a better version of the Emperor's servant?

"I am here to serve you. Whatever you need I'm here to provide." The girl gave Wendy a big satisfied toothy grin. "If you want breakfast I'll provide, if a bath I'll take you there and you can clean up. All you need to do is ask, mistress." Wendy's mind was inundated with questions, ideas and Leanne. The 'program' barged in with its own set of plans. She shut her eyes and pressed her fists to them.

"Out, out, out, get out..." The mantra helped her focus, bring her back to herself.

"Mistress, are you alright?" The girl climbed on the bed and knelt beside Wendy. "If you have a headache I have something for that too." She touched Wendy on the shoulder and gently squeezed.

"I just need my clothes please." Without opening her eyes Wendy reached up and took the girl's hand. It was soft, warm with a steady pulse; very much human.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather take a bath, mistress? I think you might enjoy it."

"No." The girl slipped her hand free and left to find Wendy's clothes. Once alone Wendy finally took the time to look around. She sat in the middle of a round bed within a vast and luxurious space framed by four massive corner columns that separated four exotic vistas. There were clouds that wandered lazily across the sky of a lush green valley. Grasses that swayed gently on a sun bathed steppe and snowy tendrils that drifted across the tops a moonlit mountain range. Then there were the peacocks. She watched enthralled as they sauntered along paths set between flower beds of an early morning palatial garden. Were they video screens?

Wendy slipped out of bed and tiptoed over to the peacocks. The birds meandered arrogantly about the garden with their long tails folded and heads held high. The vibrancy of the colours and the high detail of the birds and flowers caught her breath. With her hand she searched for the surface of the screen, but found none and eventually realized her hand had passed the threshold. Suddenly her hand experienced a new sensation. She felt the air move and a cool morning dampness settle on the tiny hairs of her hand. There was a world just beyond the edge, a somewhere else.

"Here you go mistress." Wendy jumped and quickly pulled her hand back; she rubbed her wrist and felt the moisture. "I have all your clothes washed and ready for you to wear." Kerry walked up to her carrying a bundle of Wendy's clothes in one hand and her boots in the other. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather take a bath first?" Wendy studied the servant, was the child truly as innocent as she looked?

"Where did you come from?" The sudden appearance of the girl reminded her of the Emperor's servant.

"I came from the other rooms, mistress, just through the golden door." She pointed at a slab of gold freestanding in front of the mountains. "You're only in the bedroom, mistress, there are other rooms in your apartments."

"I see. Can you tell me what this is?" She cocked her head towards the peacock garden.

"That is the terrace garden, mistress." Kerry answered and came up near the edge to admire a curious peacock. "It was made for you by the Emperor so you'd have a beautiful place to visit in the city."

"In the city?" Wendy looked at the garden again but did not see anything beyond the flowers and trees. "Why would the Emperor make something like this for me?" This didn't make sense, she was ready to kill the Emperor not have him make gardens for her.

"You are a Lady of the Royal Household, mistress. It is your right to have a world, or several, all to yourself." Kerry looked at her puzzled.

"How can I be of the Royal Household if I only just arrived here?" With a shrug she took her clothes from the girl and proceeded to get dressed. She was eager to wear something more than just a nightgown, even if it was an elegant nightgown. "Wait, did you just say a world all to myself? Why" How important was she and why?

"Yes mistress, you own several worlds actually because you are one of the two concubines of the Emperor." Wendy froze mid pant-leg. Her eyes searched the girl's face for the joke, but Kerry was serious and meant what she said. "And I am highly honored to be your servant." Again Kerry bowed and this time she stayed there waiting to be released from her obeisance. This was more and less than what she expected. To be kidnapped by an Emperor was one thing but to be made a sex-slave by him was just a bad cliché. She was now even more determined to escape.

"If I'm one of two? Who's the other?" Maybe she could convince the other to help her escape. Maybe.

"The other is the Lady of the Lost Path, also known as Lady Pacifica Northwest." Kerry straightened.

"Pacifica? Could I see her?" So that's what the Emperor's game is, kidnap the women of his enemies and enslave them. Pathetic! But with Pacifica at her side there was at least hope. She finished getting dressed and began to look around for anything that could be used as a weapon. Would pillows do? "Is her apartment anywhere near here?"

"Like you mistress, Lady Pacifica has access to the city from her apartments. ." Kerry pointed towards the terrace.

"So that's where were heading. Lead on Kerry, show me the way to Pacifica's apartment."

It stood in the middle of the path.

She touched it.

She touched the cow with her index finger right between its eyes and marvelled at its purity. The white bovine stood before her and chewed its cud. Once in a while it snorted. Then it offered its head to her again and patiently nudged her with its snout. She raised her hand and this time placed her whole palm on itsforehead. _That's when everything around her blurred. The cow became a white smear that floated away while her hand remained attached to it. She watched her arm elongate, twist and bend becoming super flexible in ways that terrified her! She wanted to scream, she wanted to pull her hand back, but nothing worked. Her voice was gone, her body refused to obey. Suddenly she was plucked from her place and carried along behind the white blur. She became like her arm, a rubber band yanked on by a toddler. She stretched so far her feet could no longer be seen. SNAP! Her body twanged... she was back._

" _Hello Wendy-Leanne, I've been waiting for you." The cow spoke. Wendy brought her hand down. "It's been such a long and lonely wait, but I know it's been worth it." The cow raised its head and looked at her with its large black eyes. "You have traveled far, so very far to see me, I know. I also know that the journey hasn't always been a pleasant one and I can promise you that it will only get worse. That might not sound like a good thing but what you will discover along the way will be more than its proper reward."_

" _Who or what are you?" Bewildered, she finally found her voice. She'd seen many strange things in her life, so a talking cow only elicited a modicum of surprise. She was much more shocked by what had just happened to her. "And what the hell just happened to me?"_

" _What you experienced was the fastest way I could bring you here, to my home. Now please follow me." The cow began to slowly lumber away. "As to who I am, well I go by many names and take many forms, so many in fact that I have actually forgotten half of them." The cow chuckled. "But the one I want you to know me by is..." The cow's voice trailed off as it moved further away from Wendy and her perfect painter's brush tail swatted at some flies buzzing around it. The tail beckoned her to follow._

" _I'm sorry I didn't hear that." Wendy obeyed the creature's swinging tail and followed the cow. With her vision now back to normal, she began to finally observe her surroundings and with a start realized they no longer were in the terrace garden. They meandered through a field of wild flowers and tall grasses. The sun shone high in the sky, the bees buzzed from flower to flower and the gentle sounds of a meadow resonated all around her. "What is this place? Where are we?" She skimmed her hands along the tops of the tall grasses and breathed in the pleasant scent of a fresh summer day. The more she observed her picturesque surroundings, the more she wished to remain and explore them. She could make out groves of trees in the distance and hear the telltale sounds of a brook nearby. This was an ideal place to rest and forget. Was this real? If yes, she wanted to stay!_

" _Yes it is real, and no you may not stay, my dears." The cow spoke up and startled Wendy out of her rumination._

" _Sorry?"_

" _I said you may not stay here, this place is not for you." The cow bent down and snatched a mouthful of fresh grass. She chewed it for a while then continued. "As for it being real, it will remain so only until after we're done. Once you leave, you will never return. This is only a temporary plane of existence, one that will vanish upon your departure."_

" _How did you know I was thinking of staying here? Can you read my mind?" Wendy was taken aback by this possibility. "My thoughts are my own business; stay out of my head please."_

" _Oh dear, have I upset you? I didn't mean to, it has been such a long time that I have forgotten my manners. I apologize." The cow looked at Wendy with her big sad eyes and Wendy immediately forgot about being upset._

" _It's ok, no problems." She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and gave the cow a peace offering smile._

" _Good." The cow shook its large head and flicked her ears. "Now come, let me show you why you're here." The creature again plodded away flicking her tail playfully. "Did you know my dears, that you are very unique individuals? Your dual past and combined future make you the ideal being to observe the time stream without going mad and that, Wendy-Leanne is what I have been waiting for all these many years."_

" _My dual past, do you mean when the Emperor programmed my mind to think I was Leanne?" She could feel herself stepping into the role of an interrogator. Somewhere, below her conscious and self-aware mind, Leanne had stirred._

" _Yes and no." The cow slowed and allowed Wendy to catch up to its head. "Let me explain: you, my dears have lived a literal dual existence. Your mother, who was pregnant at the time, together with your father traveled accidentally through an anomaly created by the Emperor's experimental Universal Portal. That trip split them in two, allowing one set to return to their usual time and the other to travel forward in time. Eventually both mothers gave birth to daughters who grew up to have their own unique personalities. One named Wendy and the other Leanne."_

" _So you're saying that I was split into two people?" Slowly Wendy's mind began to work out the implications of what the cow had told her. "You mean I was literally two people. Two separate people. I am Wendy and I am... Leanne?"_

" _Yes."_

" _I am both." The words resonated in her head with the two voices of Wendy and Leanne. Two in one, so who's in control? She struggled daily to keep Leanne's 'programmed' memories out of her thoughts and to keep her mind focused. Ever since Mason gave her that serum, Wendy was the person she knew she was, but Leanne was always there just below the surface. An itch she couldn't scratch. It wasn't that there were two of them in there, but two memories, two experiences and two different ways to go in life. Yet there were moments when she could think as one and the other simultaneously, presenting herself with two ways of solving problems. "But how am I just one person now? When and how did that happen?"_

" _Ah, for that you should thank the Emperor and his magnificent Universal Portal." She snorted. "It was the tool to separate you and to bring you together. You see he learned of your uniqueness and what it could mean to his drive for power and decided to make you his." They arrived at a shallow stream; its water was so crystal clear that if it wasn't for the occasional eddy, you'd miss it. "Here we are dears, the water is always fresh, cool and tasty. Would you like to try some?" The cow sunk her snout into the stream and drank deeply. Wendy approached the stream and looked in. She crouched down in confusion._

" _Where is my reflection?" She could see the rocks below and a glimmer of movement but no reflection._

" _Look again dears, there is more to see in this stream than just a reflection. Feel the water; go ahead put your hand in it." Wendy reached out and slowly submerged her hand in the stream. The cool water flowed gently between her fingers with a steady current. She saw the ripples like moving shadows but not the actual water. The longer she peered into the stream the more it glistened. Soon the flickers of light began to coalesce and shapes appeared in the flow. Wendy reached out to touch the shapes but her fingers passed through them and as she watched, the shapes formed into people she knew. There was Pacifica, Dipper, Mable, Robbie and then Leanne's parents materialized. She watched her with them at the TC graduation ceremony. Then her father came into view with his long red beard teaching her brothers how to swing an ax. The images surged from one to another, between Wendy and Leanne._

" _Wha... what is this?" She looked up just in time to see the cow's large rear end come swinging at her. "Hey be careful!"_

 _The force of the push propelled her far into the middle of the stream. She landed with a big splash and learned that the shallowness of the stream was a deception; the water was much deeper than she first thought. The liquid enveloped her, squeezed her and she had a distinctly odd feeling of being swallowed. Flailing she was dragged speedily down into its murky depths. Her arms struggled to break free while her legs kicked hard against the pull. All her muscles worked feverishly to bring her back up to the surface, to no effect. Soon the surface light was only a tiny glimmer far above her head and yet she kept on sliding into the darkness. As her lungs cried out for air, she managed to grab her mouth and nose in an attempt to plug them. She was quickly losing the struggle._

 _Suddenly with a burst it all came out._

 _She screamed then inhaled deeply._

 _Her body convulsed as her lungs filled with cool liquid and fear of death gripped her mind. She was drowning, they were drowning. But they didn't...? As her rapid plunge into the black depths slowed, whatever brought her down here let her go and she eventually came to a stop in the void. She stilled her panicked mind and focused. Her eyes were useless down here; no light meant no visibility. She spun round in a search for... anything. There was nothing but black. Her long hair wrapped itself around her face and she clawed at it still hoping to see something. There was nothing._

 _The cow betrayed her, all that nonsense about her parents was just to get her trapped down here. She thrashed about in the liquid, slammed her fists into emptiness and cried out without sound. Then she felt it, a stir in the liquid. Something disturbed it from outside of herself. She pulled her limbs close and waited. What could possibly lurk down here? What could possibly live in this darkness? Her imagination became hysterical with ideas of monsters as she began to shake with fear. Death had come for her. She imagined razor sharp teeth tearing at her flesh, creatures as ugly as sin hungering for their meal with no place for her to hide. Then..._

 _A point of light._

 _She saw a point of light._

 _Was it real? Yes, yes it was and it was close to her!_

 _The light grew into a beautiful orb of amber radiance. It bobbed slowly with a soothing hypnotic motion. It calmed her, relaxed her, and helped her to forget the fear. She loosened up and looked past it into the void and saw that the void looked back at her. A reflection? No, not a reflection. Leanne._

 _They saw each other for the first time, perfectly illuminated by the glow of the orb and realized they were nude. Neither one cared for modesty as they swam around the orb and towards one another. They reached out and connected with their fingers and gently caressed them, testing the reality of one another, and then eagerly clasped their hands. They held tight and felt the synchronized steady beat of their hearts. Their eyes locked and both smiled. Sisters, twins separated by time and circumstances and finally brought together. Both parted their lips to make words, but no sound came out, instead they spoke without speaking._

" _Wendy..." L._

" _Leanne..." W._

" _Sister." L._

" _Sister." W._

" _I don't know how but we're here." L._

" _Yeah, but where is here?" W._

" _I don't know I've never seen anything like this." L._

" _Who cares? I finally have a sister!" W._

" _I know, isn't this great!" L._

" _But for how long? Does that cow mean to keep us here forever?" W._

" _No, I think she meant for this to happen. I think she wants us to meet." L._

" _Ok, but why, what could possibly come out of this? Why drown us?" W._

" _Maybe this is the only way we could truly communicate, otherwise we're so far apart neither one of us can hear the other." L._

" _Well we're here, so now what? Do we just stay here and talk?" W._

" _Maybe. Maybe that's what we need to do, to talk, to finally get to know one another. Once we're back at the surface we might not hear each other again. This might be our only opportunity to..." L._

" _Leanne, I don't want to go back to that! I don't want to be stuck with you in one body!" W._

" _Oh..." L._

" _I want to have a sister, an actual flesh and blood sister. I want to be able to talk with you when I have a bad day and I want to share with you the good ones. I want you to be there with me, I just want us to be normal. I've spent my life in a house full of men and I need you." W._

" _Wendy... me too. I don't have any siblings, so I want this to be real; I too need you in my life. But I don't think we can have it that way. Here we are separated, but out there we're still together in one body. I'm sorry." L._

" _That's not fair! Our parents didn't have a choice in what happened to them and neither did we." W._

" _I know and I agree with you. But the Emperor did whatever he did and here we are." L._

" _Damn that man!" W._

" _Yeah, damn him..." L._

" _So what are we expected to do here? How are we supposed to solve this, because unless we figure this out we'll be stuck with the same problem as before, no contact?" W._

" _I don't know, but we need to and I think it might be the solution for getting out of here. Hmm, why exactly is this orb here? Is it only to give us light or is there something more to it?" L._

 _They hovered around it examining the glowing sphere. There were no breaks in its surface and no differentiations in colour. It glowed with the dying light of an evening sun; beautiful to behold but threatening the imminent approach of night. Both reached out and carefully place their hands on its surface and both realized they were stuck. The orb held them and slowly absorbed their hands until they could feel each other's fingers within it. They clasped them and held on tight._

 _The surface rushed at them and they broke through._

 _The glowing orb was gone, replaced by the light of the noon day sun. They sat in the middle of the shallow stream and blinked. The water flowed around their body still showing no reflection. A shiver ran down their back. They raised a hand and touched their face; it was Leanne's and it was Wendy's. They stood up and looked at the bank to see the cow observing them with her head tilted. Their eyes perceived the creature as if for the first time and suddenly its duality became obvious to them. She had a sort of shimmer, a ghostly after image._

" _What just happened?" Wendy spoke with Leanne's words and Leanne spoke with Wendy's. The two had become one._

" _What I knew would." The cow stepped into the stream and crossed to the other side. "You are no longer split. Congratulations my dears this is the beginning of a long and interesting life. Now come we still have more to do." The cow climbed up the embankment and continued into the field._

 _They smiled and followed the cow. "Could you at least tell us your name; we didn't catch it the first time?" It was comforting to know their struggle was over. A sisterly bond had formed in the simultaneous acceptance of the other and in the recognition of their singular origin. There was joy and understanding, a flow of thought and ideas, many ideas. Suddenly they were full of energy, ready to do battle with whatever the cow might throw their way._

 _The cow stomped on, through the high grass and towards the nearest grove of trees._

 _The sky looked bluer, the wind felt fresher and the world beneath their feet felt firmer. Alone no more, the sisters rushed up the embankment and hurried after the cow._

 _There was an exhibit at the Mystery Shack of curious two faced coins. They were probably made that way by Stan, but the result was impressive, who knew the old scoundrel was an artist? One coin in particular had caught Wendy's eye, it had two heads, one that smiled at you and the other pensive. This was the only exhibit she never complained when asked to clean. Those moments when she held that coin between her fingers, were surprisingly the most peaceful she'd ever had. Now they knew why._

 _They all hastened down a well worn path that led through the grass, the cow followed it and they followed the cow._

" _Come, I hope you're ready for this one." The cow reached the grove but did not enter. "From here on you must go alone, I can only bring you here but cannot follow. One advice: remember who you are."_

" _What's in there?" The grove looked thick and overgrown. "Will we have to fight?"_

" _That will be up to you." The cow snorted and lay down in the grass, closed her eyes and looked to be no longer willing to answer more questions._

 _For a moment they hesitated, but only for a moment._

 _Once under the shadow of the trees the temperature dropped enough to give them goose-bumps. The thick underbrush blocked their way, but looking left and right showed no other way in. So they went straight for it. They broke the higher branches and kicked at the low ones. In their struggle to push through, their clothes snagged and tore on thorns. The deeper they went the harder it got, cuts and scrapes became the norm. Soon their progress became no more than a foot at a time, yet they still pressed on. Sweat and blood mixed as the cuts grew more numerous. Their eyes stung as sweat poured down their face. Finally there was no more progress and no turning back either, the brambles had them._

" _Argh...!" The sisters stopped, calmed, and closed their eyes. Their body stung from the many cuts and scrapes, but they ignored the pain. Slow deep breaths. Heart beat slowed. Adrenaline dissipated. Patience... Patience..._

" _Hello Wendy." It was Dipper! He stood before her all grown up, tall and handsome, broad shouldered and with an easy smile, no more little boy nervousness. "Want to go for a walk in the woods?"_

 _ **Surprise. L.**_

 _He reached out his hand and waited. The brambles were gone and a tall cathedral pine forest surrounded them. The light gently filtered down through the canopy in a cascade of amber from the setting sun. "Come on Wendy, we have all the time in the world, let's go exploring."_

 _ **Curious... L**_ _._

 _Wendy reached out her hand and let it hover over his, she looked up into his eyes and he smiled._

 _ **Envy! L.**_

 _He took her hand and pulled her close, she felt his warmth against her and her heart began to race. She recalled all those times when he made googly eyes at her and realized that she actually had feelings for him even back then. She gazed into his eyes and felt herself melt. Could she just let go and spend some time with him? The woods were such a magical place just before sunset and anything could be possible, even a romance…_

 _ **Jealousy! L.**_

 _He embraced her with his left arm while with his right he delicately stroked her cheek. A mischievous gentle smile flourished his lips. A strand of red hair floated over her face and his fingers played with it seductively. His forehead touched hers while those deep hazel eyes consumed her. She swam in them dreamily loosing all sense of herself. Her body drifted in his confidence and willingly gave itself over to his caresses._

 _ **Bitterness. L.**_

 _ **Resentment. L.**_

 _ **NO! L.**_

 _ **Please…no… L.**_

" _No!" She pulled away and looked behind him to see her sister standing with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I know you fell in love with him. I didn't mean to…" She walked up to Leanne and took her hand in hers. "We have many things to work out don't we?"_

" _Yes, yes we do." Leanne came closer and hugged her._

 _A sudden gust of wind swirled dust into their eyes and erased the woods. They were back just outside the grove with the cow in the grass. Their bodies back to one._

" _How do we work these things out?"_

" _In time you'll learn to follow each others thought, ideas and passions but until then, you'll have moments like the one you've just experienced." The cow sighed deeply. "I remember the first time we met. Twins separated by a deliberate act of malice, only to reunite and learn of a destiny far greater than anything we could have ever imagined." The cow's eyes drifted off into memory._

" _What exactly is our destiny?" The cow looked at them with benevolence and lumbered to her feet._

" _It is time for you to find out, come let me show you your future."_


	16. Chapter 16: The Broken Man

I have run afoul of my Beta Reader and will be in the doghouse if I don't mention her, so here goes:

Stayathomemum! Thanks so much, now please let me back in…

Mason materialized into a world of horrific pain and watched as his skin melted. It hung loose on his body like a garment sizes too large. He felt his bones crystalize and his eyes fuse to his skull as his sight departed.

With a silent scream, he dropped to his knees shattering the kneecaps and then fell over. Violent convulsions tossed him about and broke bones. Afterwards he lay on the cold stone like discarded meat from a butcher's block. The Oracle grabbed his right arm and reached through the disintegrating skin to place something inside. He was awake and painfully aware while all this took place, but thankfully, as the Oracle departed he slipped away into unconsciousness.

Shortly thereafter, as she performed her daily supplication ritual, Ragga Sa-Vaal's youngest sister found him in the temple of the old god's prophet.

On her way to the prophet's temple, Vaya Sa-Vaal felt unusually burdened after a previous night's discussion with her brother. Her people's imprisonment had now lasted for over two thousand years and Ragga was of the opinion that the Prophet needed to come soon. She tried to explain to him that the gods chose their own timing and did not indulge the whims or wishes of mere mortals. The gods after all did see the universe differently and knew the ebb and flow of time intimately. However, her brother began to question their actions and even their very existence.

"For two thousand years we have been imprisoned Vaya, confined to this one dimension, to this one world while our Empire was taken away!" he raged. "For two thousand years we have grovelled in the swamps begging them to return to us the glory that was ours!" His eyes held deep fury as they looked at her. "Sister, I no longer believe they listen to our prayers and right now I no longer believe they even exist." Vaya was shocked to hear her brother's words and this morning intended to pray for forgiveness for his transgression. Yet she found it strangely difficult to dismiss her own feelings of doubt as if this time her brother's blasphemous words had a touch of truth to them.

She waded confidently into the swamp that surrounded the overgrown temple ruin, located in the centre of Vaal clan's territory. The duty of keeping the memory of the old gods had fallen to her as the youngest priestess of the Vaal clan. However today she wished that responsibility had fallen on someone else's shoulders. With a heart full of doubt and a mind filled with confusion, she meandered through the swamp avoiding fallen trees and deep pools. She knew the path by heart but today she almost fell. The people had forgotten their gods and abandoned their temples, yet she believed. Was she wrong?

As a young child, she travelled with her parents to the Mountain of Fire, to watch the miracle of the old gods. A fire that burned but did not burn lit the sky and blessed the people with another year of life. There she learned the legends, there she learned of the cloaked figures of the War god and his Prophet and experienced her own miracle.

"Little girl, would you like to learn more about the Prophesy?" Curious, she had wandered away from her family and into one of the hundreds of ancient temples that lined the road up to the mountain's summit. "Come, sit at my fire and let me tell you about the 'broken man' and the new life he will bring to our people." The heavily cloaked monk sat on the floor behind a low table and pointed her to a threadbare cushion. His hoarse voice emanated from under a dark cowl while the fire played wildly with his shadows. "Sit child, I am old and worn by life, I do not bite." Vaya told herself she was not afraid of the monk; she was of the clan Vaal, and her blood ran cold and strong.

"I am not afraid of you monk, and will sit when I am ready." She walked the perimeter of the shadowy single room temple and pretended to study the carvings and icons to gods long forgotten by her people. "This is a temple to the Prophet, is he important?" She worked her way to the cushion and touched its worn pattern covered surface. She studied the intricate and colourful design but could not discern its meaning.

"Is the Prophet important?" The old monk sounded irritated. "Child, have your parents not instructed you in the teachings of Master Sa-Vaal?"

"Who is this Master Sa-Vaal?" Now her curiosity was peaked; she had never heard of Master Sa-Vaal of her clan, nor had her parents truly instructed her in the Prophesy. "Is he around to tell me about his teachings?"

"I'm sorry child, but Master Sa-Vaal died nearly two thousand years ago. Fortunately we have his writings and the Prophesy of course." The monk motioned again to the pillow and Vaya decided to sit. "Now then, let me tell you a tale of high adventure. Of a time when the Empire spanned the multiverse and our people lived like gods amongst the masses." For the next several hours, Vaya lived her people's history and experienced wonder beyond her imagination. The old monk used 'magic' to summon visions of the old days before the imprisonment and showed her the glory of the Empire.

With every tale told, Vaya hungered for more. To a child whose only experience in life had been the sheltered living in a clan enclave, the monk's tales were a glorious introduction to a world beyond her own. As the monk enlightened her on the intricacy of the Prophesy, Vaya become convinced of her life's purpose. She would study the ancient texts and become a priestess of the Prophet.

Once inside the temple's prayer chamber, she pulled out of her pack the old cushion with the intricate pattern and began to light the fire in the ancient hearth. A muffled sound reached her delicate ears and she ignored it, passing it off as the noises of a wild animal that ventured into the temple. With the fire lit, she knelt on the cushion and prepared to pray.

Focus was hard to come by that morning, as the animal kept groaning and the memory of the previous night would not dissipate. She decided to recite the text of the Prophecy and focus her prayers on the meaning of the 'broken man'. However, even the rhythmic words of the ancient text did not help. Finally, she had had enough and roared. With the silence broken, the animal began to whine pitifully and Vaya determined to go and put it out of its misery.

With her spear in hand, she followed the sound to a side chamber. It had been a while since she hunted and the thrill of a kill enhanced her senses. She could smell its blood and felt its fear. She rounded a corner and entered the semi-dark room, her eyes refocused as she opened her night-eyelids. The sight that confronted her was not what she expected. A pile of flesh lay in the centre of the chamber and struggled to move while pitiful noises emanated from it. She approached it cautiously then looked directly into its face and recognized the pattern from the cushion. The 'broken man' had arrived.

Mason felt the presence of another and attempted to communicate with the pitiful sounds of a broken body. He lifted his head and immediately lost consciousness.

" _Need a hand?" Mable held out her hand and gave him a concerned smile._

" _No, I'll do this myself." His left eye was already beginning to swell. He climbed to his knees and slowly lifted himself up by the branches of a tree. He knew he should not have picked a fight with Robbie, but Robbie insulted Mable. What else could he have done?_

" _I can fight my own battels, Mason." Mable stepped in front of him and placed her hands on her hips. "Robbie is a jerk and there is nothing you will prove by fighting him." Yes there is. He will prove to Wendy that he can stand up to a bully like Robbie. He tried to push past her but Mable stood firm. Then it happened._

" _Robbie, get lost!" Wendy spoke up as she entered the clearing. "You're a coward for picking on someone half your size." She positioned herself between them and dared Robbie to make a move. Mason was relieved she did and a bit put off as well. How was he to prove to her that he was not the weakling they all thought he was?_

 _For a second Robbie hesitated and then burst out laughing._

" _Yeah, this is what you are, twerp. You let the girls fight for you." He laughed even harder with his head tilted backwards. Mason only remembered his rage but not his action. His height was perfect and his aim just as well._

" _Mason, enough!" Mable called out to him. "I don't think he's getting back up."_

 _When Mason finally regained his composure, Robbie was on the ground curled up in a fetal position. Hands clutched his groin while his nose bled previously. Mason stood over him with a bloodied shoe. An inhuman sobbing came from Robbie as tears and blood flowed over his face._

 _Had he defeated the bully?_

Awake and in pain.

Then, knowledge.

The awareness of a broken and mutilated body.

Parts of him no longer felt attached.

Parts of him no longer felt human.

Parts of him no longer felt.

He wanted to scream, he wanted to move, yet nothing worked. He threw open his eyes to a painful blinding light and a thick liquid. His mouth and nose were covered and a machine did the breathing for him. He again strained to move, but what held him was stronger. Slowly images formed. Long black shapes slithered before his eyes and beyond them, other shapes moved and interacted.

A sudden piercing pain.

Panic rose in him so fast it overwhelmed the senses and broke through his defences of sanity.

He convulsed and blacked out.

 _At fifteen, Mason finally matched Wendy for height._

" _And you are?" Sarcastic as always. He placed his duffle beside the counter and looked right at her._

" _It's me, Mason! Mable's twin…" Was she kidding? "You don't remember me?"_

" _Ahh, um… well I remember Mason but you… Wow! Mason?"_

" _Have I changed that much in two years? Come on Wendy, you're kidding right?" A strand of red hair freed itself and fell across her face. She brushed it behind her ear, and twirled it around her finger._

" _Now that I look closer, I can see. But oh boy Mason, you've really grown." She came out from behind the counter and walked around him, eying him up and down. Mason felt like a prized pony at auction and puffed out his chest. "That long hair suits you well but I've never imagined you could actually grow muscles." She felt his biceps and nodded approvingly. "Robbie will think twice about getting even."_

" _It looks like I actually take after my uncles, a late bloomer, ha, ha." That and sneaking into the school's gym after hours. "Is Robbie still holding a grudge?"_

" _Yeah, but I don't think you need to worry about him." She bit her lower lip and wrapped her arm around his. "Let's go into town. The Love God is throwing a concert tonight and the whole town is having a party." She pulled him towards the door._

" _What about the store?"_

" _Soos, I'm going out with Mason!" She turned and yelled._

" _Ok dude!" Came the response._

"… _and my bag?"_

" _Just kick it behind the counter, it'll be ok." He did and they were off._

He felt each one of the needles go in, so many of them in fact that his mind lost count. His right hand started to twitch, a reaction to the pain.

"Is he awake?"

"I'm not sure…"

"Well be sure!"

"Yes sir." A long hiss followed the conversation and a deep warmth spread throughout his body.

Sleep.

 _The lake was her idea and he strongly agreed with it. He knew things were changing between them, but not how much. Perhaps it was just the length of time between seeing each other, or perhaps she had grown out of the need to be his friend._

" _You ok?" All through the concert, Wendy avoided his eyes in a similar way he did hers two years ago._

" _Yeah I'm ok, just thinking about the concert." She played with her fingers. "It was great to see how much Love God improved wasn't it?" She walked slightly ahead of him and just out of reach._

" _Oh yeah, I especially liked his new edgy sound."_

" _Mason…" It was a hot evening and Wendy was in her gray tank top with the plaid shirt wrapped around her midriff._

" _What is it?" Suddenly a shy teen replaced the cool girl Mason knew from two years ago._

" _Remember that summer how I told you that I was too old for you?" She stopped and let him catch up. "Well… maybe… I was wrong?" She made a hole in the sand with her boot._

" _Uhm…" His hands felt clammy and his mind turned to mush. "Uhm…"_

" _The truth is I knew it was you when you arrived at the Shack. Soos told me you were coming and I felt I needed to be there to greet you and when you walked in, I kind of…" She looked up and Mason's heart become a racehorse. "I kind of realized I missed you, in that other way. You know what I mean?"_

" _Uhm…" He, an honor-roll student, could only grunt and blubber incoherently. "Are you…do you mean…I thought…I missed you too." They stood so close he could see the moonlight reflect in those beautiful emerald eyes. Wendy remained silent while her hands and lips did the talking._

"Two hundred and fifty."

Buzz.

"Increase."

"Two hundred and seventy five."

Buzz.

"Increase."

"Three hundred."

Buzz.

"Hold."

Mason felt a dull ache in his legs. His toes began to move on their own, each individual toe made an up and down motion.

"Connections appear to have been successful, sir."

His foot twitched from a sharp yet light poke in the sole of his right foot, then in the left foot.

"We have motion and autonomic responses."

"This will take him a long time to learn how to use, but it was worth it."

Sleep.

" _You grew up!" She sounded surprised while her eyes betrayed satisfaction. He was now taller than her._

" _Well, yes. It has been four years after all, but you, you haven't changed." She was so close and so beautiful Mason could not get enough of her. Every day of the past four years, he had thought of her. Every day. "I wasn't sure you'd remember me, but I'm glad you do." She gave him a sly smile. He walked in on her while she was giving Melody's baby a bottle._

" _How could you say that? I'd never forget a friend!" A friend? She finished feeding the baby and placed him in a play-pan. Then sauntered over to him, kissed his cheek and hurriedly stepped back._

" _Is that all a 'friend' gets after four years?" Her scent intoxicated him. He wanted to take her into his arms, hold her close and kiss her deeply. Throwing a coy look at him, she hesitated while a lock of red hair drifted over those emerald eyes._

" _Anything more might be… too much." Those eyes held his as a demure smile crossed her lips. She strolled past him into the store and brushed her fingertips against his bare forearm. The electric touch sent a shiver down his spine. He grabbed for her hand but she hurried to the counter and slid behind it. "So, how have you been all these many years?" As if she didn't know. She busied herself rearranging the display items on the counter._

" _Oh you know, busy with school and stuff. You?" He approached the counter and leaned on the glass. She smiled and leaned back against the wall._

" _Same and of course busy here at the Shack." She held his gaze and her breath quivered as she inhaled deeply. "I bet you're eager to see Soos and Melody…" Her voice broke and she masked it with a nervous laughter. "…they stepped out for a moment. Should be back any minute now."_

" _Yes, I'd like to see them." He took in a deep breath himself. "But I'm here because of you."_

 _She sneaked a peek at the door, smiled and bit her lower lip. "I know…I know." Lithely she stepped forward to the counter and leaned towards him. "I'd never forget you. I'd wait for you for a thousand years." He reached up and lovingly caressed her cheek. His eyes reveled in the vision of beauty before him as he drew her closer. Finally, their lips found each other and the world melted away._

"…the Prophet will need more time." The voices pulled him back to reality. "He can't tell you anything yet."

"When will he be able to talk?" A hiss.

"I cannot say. With the level of damage his body experienced, he should have been dead long ago. We are still learning about human physiology so the best I can give you is a guess. Is that what you want?"

"No, no, no. What I want and what I need is for him to give us answers!" A low growl.

"Our people waited two millennia for him, a few more days or weeks is not going to change anything."

"No, they won't change anything, but to have him here and now… I guess I'm just impatient. It's frustrating to know that we're so close but that we still have to wait longer." A muffled thud.

"I understand how you feel Ragga. We all want to know but there is nothing more I can do. You just need to be patient."

"Yeah, I know. I know… hey how about you and I get a drink; it will help me calm down."

"Sounds like a good idea, I think I need one too."

The voices left the room and the door shut behind them. Mason was alone with the humming and hissing machines that kept him alive.

' _Good god you're alive!'_ This voice was different, it was from within. ' _I've been looking for you for the past eight months. I wasn't sure you survived and I have to admit I'm surprised you actually made it.'_ Mason listened but did not respond he was not even sure he could. _'I want you to know I haven't given up, you asked me for help and I will. Now go to sleep and get more rest, you're in a bad way my friend.'_ Finally silence, no more words no more voices. He drifted off to sleep.

" _You planted it too deep!" She reached over and uncovered the stem. "The sapling needs to be more exposed." Her body leaned against his as they crouched on the forest floor. "Here let me show you." She reached into his bag and pulled out a new sapling. "Watch." He did, but not the tree. She lectured him for the next few moments on the proper technique of tree planting, but he would remember none of it._

 _The sun fell between the trees in streamers of light that glistened off her thick amber hair. A dark blue bandana held back those wild locks as they cascaded over her back in a loose ponytail. She wore her usual plaid shirt and jeans with a gray sapling bag flung crosswise over her left shoulder. The bag rode on her right hip and emphasized her curves. He loved her curves._

" _Are you watching this?" She caught his eyes as they roamed over her body._

" _Yes, I'm watching." He smirked._

" _I know you're watching but what exactly are you watching?" She punched him in the shoulder and unbalanced him. As he fell, he caught hold of her hand and pulled her down on top of him. They tumbled into the dirt._

" _Mason you ass, let me go!" She struggled half-heartedly and quickly gave up. "I guess we can take a break." Her hair fell all around them and veiled what happened next from the eyes of the others. They had a moment of being somewhat alone._

" _Hey, are you two planting or…" The supervisor's voice broke off when he saw them on top of one another._

" _Maybe we should get back to work?" Mason was in no hurry to get back to tree planting, but felt guilty for lying down on the job._

" _No." Eager to kiss him she did not waste time on words. She covered him with a flurry of deep and passionate kisses, as if making up for the past four years. The others moved on and left them alone in the wild._

A loud crack startled him awake.

In his exhaustion, he just lay there unmoving, simply listening to his own breathing. There is something soothing about the sound of one's own breath steadily coming and going. Patiently he ran a self-check. Legs, still there; arms, still there; hands, five fingers and functioning; even his toes wiggled properly. He felt them but not the way he used to, something changed, their essence was… different.

There were no other sounds in the place he currently occupied, no machines, no others breathing. As far as he could tell, he was alone. A bandage tightly wrapped around his head covered his eyes and blocked out all light. Recalling the pain from the last time he opened his eyes, this was a good thing.

Another loud crack. It reminded him of lightening strikes back home; perhaps the world he ended up on was his own. However, he knew better, the Oracle would not let him go back; he had done too many 'things'. A soft pitter-patter resonated from his left. The rain had started.

' _Yes, it is raining.'_ The inner voice again. _'It's one of those lovely spring showers that brings wild beautiful flowers.'_ The absurdity of that statement made him wince. _'If you think that's odd, you should see where you ended up. But I'm not going to spoil the surprise, you'll find out in due course.'_ Whatever. He was too tired to care.

Sleep.

" _I do."_

 _This wild freckled beauty bewitched his soul, changed his life and was about to become his wife. Finally. A crown of wild flowers adorned her amber hair as it shimmered under the dazzling summer sun. Her lips curved up in that easy smile he found so alluring and her emerald eyes shone brightly. His queen wore a simple white dress and black boots. Oh yes, she bewitched him to no end._

 _One black boot poked from under the hem and tapped as she waited for his response. His mind froze not from fear but in love._

" _Mason, hey Mason…" Soos tried to get his attention. "Dude it's your turn."_

" _Hm… oh yes. I do, I do, I do!" Mason blurted out as the guests snickered._

" _Are you sure?" Wendy teased him. "Because if you're not…"_

" _I'm sure!" He professed. "I was just… looking at you, beautiful." She blew him a kiss._

" _Well then dudes, by the power granted to me by the state of Oregon, I now pronounce you well married. You may now kiss." Wendy grabbed him by the tie and pulled him to her to plant the first kiss of their new life together._

The dream or memory remained after sleep fled, and haunted his conscious mind. For the next hour, Mason experienced moments of absolute euphoria and suffered bouts of severe depression. His body shook with emotion whilst tears spilled from his covered eyes and soaked the bandage. The nightmare that was to come next would be tolerable only if he could remain awake for the rest of his natural life. Yet while he fought to stay awake, the complete exhaustion of his body threatened to pull him back under.

Eventually, sleep fought its way back into his mind and soon he began to dream.

 _Red._

 _So much red on white._

" _Mason, move! You must move!" Why? Someone pulled at him._

 _Paralyzed, he could only sit and stroke her hair as it spilled over the grass. Those emeralds that only moments ago shone with so much life and love were now dull. She lay still in his arms, quickly becoming only a memory._

" _Mason, she's gone. You must get up and come with me!" In a daze, he looked up into Ford's face. "Come on now, we need to go."_

" _No… no..." He shook his head and returned his gaze to her. A loud crack startled Ford as he rounded Mason and with a final look, left him there._

 _Smoke billowed from the destroyed Shack 'O' Wonders and strange lizard-men spilled out of a wild unbound portal. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Mason was aware of all the chaos around him, but did not care._

 _Footsteps approached him and a scaled hand rested on his shoulder then gently squeezed. Mason turned to look; a hooded figure stood next to him and obscured the sun._

" _I am sorry but she is truly gone." A deep and tender voice informed him. "Now let her go and come with me." Mason gazed into the darkness of the hood as tears began to stream down his cheeks. He gently laid her in the grass, stroked her hair for the last time and closed her eyes._

" _Good bye..." his love, his friend, his obsession "…Wendy, I love you."_

"NO! NO! NO!" His throat hurt as he screamed and garbled sounds game out after. "…no, no, no…Wendy…"

' _Sorry, but I didn't believe you when you said that she died in your arms.'_ The voice's intrusion into his pain was more than he could bear.

"Fuck you! Shut the hell up!"

' _Look I know you're upset but…"_

"You don't know shit; you don't know anything about me! So shut the hell up!"

' _Ok… sorry.'_ It left him alone.

Mason laid there sobbing. Time passed and his pain eased, but the memory was just as vivid. He needed to open his eyes to remove the nightmare, but the bandage wound tightly around his head prevented him. Therefore, he remained in the darkness with the last image of her and the pain of remembering it.

Eventually he drifted off to sleep.

" _I won't ask you again, because I know you will do it." Mason came up to the boy from behind placed a gloved hand on his head and laid the blade against the child's bare throat. He held it there. The blindfolded boy whimpered quietly. "You have made your choice Mason and you know what you are expected to do." The hooded figure stood half turned in the doorway, ready to depart as soon as Mason finished._

 _This was the first time the Emperor asked him to perform the cleansing. All previous times his lizard-soldiers eagerly butchered the inhabitants of every Gravity Falls they descended upon, including Mason's own. The memories of dead Soos, Fords, Stans, Candys, Pacificas, Tambrys piled one on top of another. He no longer knew nor cared what dimension they were in; the dinosaurs died just as easily as the puppets and the dolphins. His hand moved with speedy expertise as it guided the blade across the child's throat. With soft gurgling sounds, the life drained from the boy and Mason dropped the lifeless young Dipper to the floor of the Shack._

" _Good." The Emperor left the building and Mason followed._

"The Prophet wakes." He was awake but kept his eyes closed. His breathing was calm and steady. He knew they waited for him they waited for their Prophet.

' _You ready?'_ A momentary pause to collect his thoughts.

' _Yeah, I'm ready. Are you sure this will work?'_ He had doubts.

' _It will because it must."_ They had conversed and planned for the past several weeks while Mason recovered fully. _"They are simply waiting for you to tell them when their Saviour will arrive so just tell them what we agreed on.'_

' _Easy for you to say, you're in another dimension. I'm here with my ass hanging out, if this goes wrong I'm the one they'll blame.'_

' _Don't worry, it won't go wrong. Just tell them I'll be there tonight.'_

' _I'm still not sure this will work Dipper, after all they are the Emperor's warriors and he will be mighty pissed about it.'_ Take away the Emperor's supply of soldiers and you take away his power. Or so they reasoned.

' _Yes I know he'll be pissed, but as I said before, with these here we'll have our own forces to challenge him.'_ That was the best part of this plan. They needed might to challenge the Emperor's power and who better than his own forces.

' _Ok, ok.'_

' _So remember, tell them I'll be at the old temple tonight.'_

Mason opened his eyes and looked around the small room packed with a race of lizard-man know as the Reptiloids.

"He comes tonight, prepare yourselves!"


End file.
